The Return Of The Guardian
by darklight96
Summary: Squeal to the The Guardian (Which is being rewritten at the moment) Kurokami Hikaru has returned after "leaving" Konoha or that is what most people thought. While the rest thought she was dead. What will happen to her and everyone when they find out the t
1. Chapter 1

"Normal talking"

_'thoughts_'

**'****Shugo ryuu's thoughts'**

(To those who don't know who Shugo Ryuu is. He is a beast that is sealed inside of Hikaru. There used to be two sides of Shugo Ryuu, but they combined into one. Explained later on in the story."

_**Flashback**_

Two and a half years ago

Sounds of Naruto and Sasuke fighting could be heard throughout the forest. As fast as I possibly could, I ran towards the waterfall, where my two friends were fighting. A trail of blood followed behind me as I continued to run. It would have been better if I was not injured during my ANBU mission and I did not still have the ropes tied around my wrists, but right now I cannot focus on my pain. Right now I have to stop Naruto and Sasuke from fighting before they kill one another.

"Rasengan!"

"Chidori!"

I had just reached the waterfall to see a blue and red light clashing together in the very center of the waterfall.

_'Idiots!'_

I rushed into the light and grabbed the Sasuke's arm, directing his attack to me. At last when their attack faded away I half dragged, half carried the two onto the land. I carefully laid Naruto on the ground, while Sasuke stood beside me.

"Hikaru... Why are you here?" Sasuke muttered, his eyes never leaving Naruto's face.

"I was kidnapped by the five sound ninjas..." I answered as I sadly gazed up at him. After a moment of silence he suddenly grabbed his arm and fell to the ground, coughing up some blood.

"Sasuke!" I moved closer to him, petting him on the back as it began to rain. "... Sasuke... Why are you leaving?"

Sasuke turned his gaze to me, "I need to get stronger and Orochimaru is the only one that can help me."

I wanted to say something, but judging by the look in his eyes he was not going to change his mind.

"... Alright Sasuke... but promise me one thing..." I cupped Sasuke's face in my trembling hands and gave him a small peck on his forehead where his forehead protector used to be. "Take care of yourself." I whispered with a sad smile on my face.

As I started to remove my hands, Sasuke immediately grabbed my cut up arms and pulled them forward. Before I could react, I felt Sasuke's lips on mine. My body instantly froze even when he stopped kissing me, I was still frozen. Sasuke slowly got up to his feet and looked at Naruto and I one last time.

"Goodbye Naruto... Hikaru..."

With that he left, leaving us in the pouring rain. I started to compose myself when the stinging pain of the rain hit my cuts. I then turned my attention to Naruto. His pulse was a little weak, but he will be fine. I began to pick Naruto's unconcious body off the ground when an unbearable pain appeared in my chest. My legs collapsed beneath me and blood kept gushing out of my mouth chest, but despite the pain I still held onto Naruto.

"Naruto... I'm sorry... I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you and help bring Sasuke back... Instead I let him go..." Tears ran down my face and refused to stop. Meanwhile, black spots began to show up in my vision. "Sorry... Naruto..."

Soon my body fell forwards as my conciousness fell into the darkness.

_**End Flashback**_

* * *

Konoha

I was perched in a nearby tree, admiring the view of the Konoha village. Other than the fifth Hokage's face carved into the mountains, nothing seemed to have changed.

_'Ah... I miss this place.'_

"Two face devil-chan~ Are you ready?"

Glancing to the left I saw an enormous venus fly trap with a black and white head in the center.

"White Zetsu-san..." I murmured then nodded.

"All right. Now go before anyone sees." Black Zetsu commanded. I bobbed my head once again before searching the village. Soon I found my target standing in the training field with a pink hair female and silver hair jonin.

'_Found you, Naruto.'_

"The rules are the same as before. No matter how, try to get the bell from me. You have until sunrise tomorrow." Kakashi stated as he read his book.

"Well... This place... I've missed it." Naruto said with a soft smile

"Yeah." Sakura responded

"Ah, that's right. This is where you first trained, isn't it?" Kakashi looked up from his book

"Team seven..." Sakura murmured

"The four-man team." Naruto added.

The two of them were sadly staring at the ground, probably remembering the times when our team used to be whole.

"... That time... Hikaru and Sasuke were around too, weren't they?" Kakashi softly stated.

Then all of a sudden Naruto and Sakura were on the ground, moping about their losses.

'_They're probably just crying about Sasuke...'_

_**'... You idiot...'**_

Kakashi clapped his book shut to snap the two out of their sorrows.

"Well then, shall we begin?"

"He he... You won't do it while reading the book this time? Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked confidently as he adjusted his headband.

"You've finished it already?" Sakura teased

"No... I think I should save the enjoyment for later. Besides... This time for some reason... I get the feeling that I should take it seriously too." Kakashi answered as he revealed his sharingan eye.

_'This will be an interesting observation.'_

* * *

After Naruto and Sakura got the bells

I have received all the information I needed. I am pretty sure Zetsu wanted me to take down Naruto, but I can't do that... However, by the information I got I am sure he will be happy about it.

Before I departed the area I took one last glance at Naruto. He has grown a lot stronger compared to before. I shifted my gaze over to Kakashi to meet his. He wore a shocked expression as he stared at my mask. If he saw my actual face he would be even more surprise.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura whispered. Kakashi looked back at Sakura to reassure them that he was okay. I took this opportunity to leave.

I soon met up with Zetsu in the forest and he immediately asked why I didn't get Naruto. I simply told him that there were too many people around and said I got some information instead. Of course Zetsu knew that there was more to my excuse, since he had seen me take down an army of high level ninjas before. But strangely, Zetsu did not question me anymore and transported us to headquarters.

* * *

Headquarters with Pein and Konan

"I see that you're back, Hikaru. We're about to start the extraction." Pein spoke as I approached him. "Zetsu, keep an eye out at Sasori and Deidara's side."

Without a word, Zetsu disappeared into the ground. I started spinning the ring on my little left finger, that used to belong to Orochimaru. I developed a habit of doing that whenever I heard them say "extraction."

"Extraction? Who did they catch?" I asked.

Pein stared at me for a while then looked over to Konan. Which was strange since he usually would just tell me who they caught or who they were planning to catch next.

"... It is Gaara of the desert..."

'_Gaara?!'_


	2. Chapter 2

Destiny-Shadow-walker: I'm sorry that I deleted the first story and I am extremely grateful to hear from you again! I really miss your comments. Also I deleted the first story because I could not think of a way to continue the story. Especially since I really want to go to into Shippuden, so yeah... Anyway your request on the pairing. Is it like scenes or it is only focused Hikaru and the character?

I was just wondering because if it is scenes I will be able to do. But if it is just focused on the other character I might have to change quite a bit of things in the story. But feel free to tell me the pairing and I will see what I can do. Also thanks for the review! :D

* * *

Headquarters

'_Gaara?!'_

_"_Assemble." Pein formed a hand seal to make us all show up on the statue's finger tips. "From this point onward, it will take 3 days and night to complete. Everyone, also be mindful of your real bodies. Zetsu, are you on lookout?"

"Yes."

"Gaara?! You got Gaara?!" I shouted. "We had a deal! And now you want me to help you guys with the extraction?!"

All of a sudden paper squares covered my whole body, making me unable to move.

"Konan, you know what to do." Pein stated. That was the last thing I heard before I blacked out.

* * *

In mind

I was seated in a room filled with burning candles. It has been about a year since I came to here to train.

"Hikaru... Long time no see." The man seated before me greeted.

"Sage of six paths..." I mumbled. The man's Rinnegan eyes narrowed to the name.

"Have you forgotten what I had told you?"

I flinched to the Sage's angry tone and frantically listed the names he wanted me to call him. "Um-I-I mean Gramps, Sage, Sensei."

"Good girl." Sage said with a nod as I sighed with relief.

Even though the Sage was not alive and I could only communicate with him because of my blood, he could be very scary and dangerous when he is angry. Luckily he doesn't snap easily.

"Hikaru... Have you forgotten everything I taught you?" Sage asked nonchalantly

"... What do you mean? I remember all of the jutsus and everything if that is what you're talking about." I responded as I slightly tilted my head in confusion.

"No, not lessons as a teacher. Lessons as a family member or if you want to call it, lessons as a descendent."

My gaze dropped when I remembered his lesson. "Yes sir... And I ignored it... I'm so stupid!" I ended with a smack on my forehead.

"Now you better remember this..." Sage stated as I peered up at him again. "Learn from your mistakes and grow."

* * *

In the headquarters

I woke up in the headquarters, but all I could see was white. With all of my strength, I tore apart the paper cocoon and got ready to attack anyone who got in my way. Scanning the room, I found no one, not even Konan.

_'I have to save Gaara!'_

Before I rushed off to get Gaara I draped my jacket hood on my head to shade my mask, while I kept the Askatsuki uniform on. I did not want anyone to see my face if my mask breaks during the fight.

By the time I got to the base I found Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and an old woman facing Deidara and Sasori. Deidara was sitting on top of Gaara's body as he taunted Naruto.

"... Give him back..." Naruto growled then began to charge at the two. "Give Gaara back! You bastards!"

Before Naruto could move any further I appeared in the very center of the room, causing him to stop.

"Calm down... If you just attack them without a plan they will destroy you." Kakashi muttered, his eye never leaving me.

"Who?..." Naruto breathed out, ignoring Kakashi's comment.

"Yo, two face. Did you change your mind about the jinchuuriki?" Deidara called out. I gritted my teeth when I saw him roughly pat Gaara's lifeless body.

"Oh, I changed my mind alright..." I muttered as I approached the two. Inside me I could feel Shugo Ryuu eagerly wanting to come out, but I only allowed Shugo Ryuu's eye colors to take over.

"I'll take care of this one." Sasori stated as he glanced at Gaara's body before looking back at us again. "It seems like the jinchuuriki wants to take this one back."

Deidara kept his eye on Naruto, while he spoke with Sasori. I was not paying attention to their conversation, since I was too focused on Gaara. All of a sudden Deidara's clay bird took Gaara in its mouth and flew off with Deidara on its back. Naruto immeadiatly chased after Deidara with Kakashi, while Sakura and the old woman stayed to fight Sasori.

'_Naruto, you're still an idiot.'_

"Hikaru... Go after Deidara for me." Sasori whispered to me.

I glanced at Sakura before I ran off after Deidara. By my observations before, Sakura's abilities should be able to keep up with Sasori's moves and the old woman looked pretty skilled. The two of them together should be able to defeat Sasori... I just hope I'm right...

* * *

With Deidara

Naruto and Kakashi has been chasing Deidara for a while as they prepared their attack. Meanwhile I followed Deidara in the sidelines.

Suddenly Kakashi released his justu, ripping off one of Deidara's arms. While he was distracted, Naruto came in and attacked him with his Rasengan. Deidara dodged the attack in the last minute, letting Naruto to hit the bird. The bird's head ripped off of its body and began to fall into the river. Before it was half way there, I quickly jumped in to grab the head. Naruto had the same idea and sent some of his clones to catch the head. We brought the head over to a tree and I left to let the clones to rip open the head, while I made my move to attack.

However, Naruto came in before I did and continuously punched Deidara. At last when Naruto used Rasengan, Deidara replaced himself with a clay dummy. Orange bubbles started to form on Naruto's body, shaping a form of a fox with two tails.

'_This is!'_

Kakashi and I jumped in to stop him from loosing control. As fast as I could, I grabbed Naruto from behind while Kakashi placed a paper seal on his forehead. Naruto quickly calmed down as I released my grip. Meanwhile, Gai's team, Sakura, and the old woman arrived.

"It's time to go out in a bang!" Deidara announced as he started to release his jutsu.

"Everyone get out of here!" Neji yelled.

Gai's team started to run the other direction, while the others bare themselves from the explosion. Before the explosion was released I formed a few hand signs.

"Black hole."

Deidara immediately vanished in thin air, while everyone stared at the spot where Deidara used to be.

'_It looks like I made it just in time.'_

"What just happened?" Gai asked out loud then looked at me. "You..."

Kakashi looked at me as well, but turned to everyone else. "Nevermind that, is everyone all right?"

Naruto jumped in with Gaara's body hanging off his shoulder when he walked Sakura to check Gaara. Everyone began to head out of the forest, leaving me behind. Well... That is what I expected when suddenly Kakashi came up to me and draped my arm over his shoulder.

"... Why?" I whispered to Kakashi. I could hear Kakashi sigh at my question.

"... Because... You're my student."

* * *

In an open field

Naruto had just finished yelling at the old woman and started to wipe his tears away with his sleeve. At that very moment I removed myself from Kakashi and kneeled above of Gaara's head.

'... There is only one thing I can do...' I placed my hand over Gaara's chest, ready to preform my jutsu when the old woman grabbed my hands.

"You're too young to preform this jutsu." She stated, then she placed her hands where my hands used to be and preformed the same jutsu.

"I'm the bad guy here. So, why?" I muttered and the old woman gave me a gentle smile in response.

"Chiyo-sama! That jutsu!" Sakura shouted

The old woman started to say her last words and wishes to Sakura and Naruto, but I didn't pay attention. Instead I "insisted" on helping the old woman with her jutsu.

"Naruto... Girl..." I looked up to see that the old woman was talking to me as well. "A request from a old hag... You two are only one who can understand Gaara's pain and also Gaara understands your pain as well."

"What are you talking about? Shouldn't you just talk to Naruto about this?" I quietly asked to have her softly giggle at me.

"I did some research on you before hand..." Chiyo responded "You two help Gaara out."

Naruto and I slowly closed our eyes.

* * *

I found myself as a child, standing alone in a plain white room, nothing could be seen or heard. Except for a soft weeping sound.

'_Gaara!'_

I ran with all of my might towards the sound and soon enough I found Gaara kneeling the ground, crying. Naruto and I placed our hand either side of his shoulders.

Gaara slowly awaken and stared at our faces in shock.

"Gaara." Naruto and I softly spoke.

"... Naruto..." Gaara then shifted his gaze to me and the crowd surrounding him. "...This..."

"Everyone came running to save you!" Naruto stated with a smile.

_'I should probably go.'_

I slowly got up to leave when suddenly a hand grabbed my wrist. When I looked down to see who it was, I found Gaara staring at me.

"... Hikaru..."


	3. Chapter 3

Back in Headquarters

"Is this person the two-face devil? She looks like a cute little girl!" an unfamiliar voice excitedly stated.

'_Who is that? Where am I'_

My body felt heavy and I could not move any of my limbs. Yet, alone my eyes.

"Even though she is young, she is still dangerous." Zetsu answered.

"Yeah, that brat transported me to another dimension. Do you know how hard it was to escape?!" Deidara exclaimed

At last my heavy eyes slowly opened as I listened to the men's conversation. My blurred vision slowly cleared up and I found myself in Akatsuki's main headquarter.

'_How did I get here?'_

* * *

_**Flashback**_

Gaara held a tight grip on my wrist and stared at me with an happy, yet confused look on his usual expressionless face.

"... Hikaru... You're Hikaru, right?"

My body froze to his question as I felt Naruto and Sakura's gaze burning into my flesh. Once I composed myself I slipped out of Gaara's grasp, still standing at the same spot.

"No, I'm not-" I asnwered, but my lie was not strong enough to convince everyone.

"Hikaru?" Naruto asked. His hand cautiously reached out to my hood when someone pulled me back. Naruto's eyes widened to the figure behind me, his expression quickly turned into a glare.

"I will be taking this one back." The voice stated as I felt his grip tighten around my waist.

"Zetsu-san..." I whispered

"Why do you want her?" Sakura anxiously questioned.

"Let's just say she is a very valuable asset." Zetsu simply answered then shifted his attention to Naruto. His eyes were red and the lines on his cheeks thickened.

"Give her back!" Naruto growled

Zetsu ignored Naruto's demands and started to sink into the ground, dragging me along with him. "We will meet again, jinkjuriki."

The last scene I saw was Naruto lunging towards Zetsu, but it was too late. Zetsu and I had already disappeared into the earth, as well as my consciousness.

**_End Flashback_**

* * *

_'That's right... Zetsu came to get me.'_

My eyes were opened wide now and I was able to move my head a bit. However, the rest of my body refused to move, as if I was trapped in something.

"Oh look! Look! The little girl is waking up!"

A pair of feet appeared before me along with some knees, most likely the person was squatting in front of me. I slowly lifted my head to meet a man wearing an orange mask and had a single hole for one of his eyes to look out of. Strangely I felt a sense of familiarity when I looked into his eye, his sharingan eye. However, the feeling was not something anyone would like. The feeling I had from this man was telling me that I should be scared.

"You are..." I weakly muttered. Suddenly the orange masked man looked over to the side.

"Hey! Hey, Zetsu-san! You're taking too much chakra!" The man wined

I glanced over to the side to see a cloudy form of white Zetsu's clone wrapped around me.

'_Spore technique huh...'_

"Shut up, Tobi! The brat deserves it." Deidara scolded.

At that very moment, Pein's mental state appeared before us.

"Zetsu, give her chakra back." Pein ordered, he the gazed at me with his expressionless face. "Then bring her back to her room and we'll decide what we will do with her from there."

"What?! Why don't we just kill her now?" Deidara angrily asked, but he was silenced by Pein's glare.

"Oh! Oh! I'll bring her, since Tobi is a good boy." Tobi enthusiastically announced. Before anyone could make a peep Tobi dragged me off to the rooms with his free arm flying around in the air.

'_**Wh-What's with this guy?'**_

During the way to my room, Tobi was telling me about some random nonsense that I paid no attention to. The only time I would force an emotion out is when he said something weird or funny.

"Here's your room, right?~" Tobi sang out as he skipped to the door.

"Yeah, thanks Tobi." I said with a faint smile. I pushed open the door and got ready to go in, but I noticed Tobi intently staring at my face. "Is there something wrong?"

Tobi snapped out of his daze and skipped away as if nothing happened at all. I tilted my head in confusion, but I decided to put the thought aside as I entered my room I found my Akatsuki uniform and mask sitting on my bed. As I approached my bed something caught my eye, a small wooden doll seated on the desk. I took the doll into my hand to examine it. The doll had dark shoulder long hair, a black hoodie with a white trim, black knee-length shorts, a white t-shirt, and a red magatama necklace.

'_It's me... In my usual clothes... This work look's like Sasori-sempai, but why did he make this?'_

I then noticed a folded piece of paper in the doll's hand. Carefully, I took the paper out of the doll's hand to read it.

Hikaru,

Meet me at Tenchi bridge

Sasori

'_Tenchi bridge... That's right I almost forgot about our mission...'_

* * *

Time skip

At Tenchi Bridge

By the time I got to Tenchi Bridge I found a fake Sasori talking to Kabuto. It has been a long time since I seen him in the chunin exam and I had always hated his guts. I continued to watch the two talk from afar, prepared to see Kabuto attack the fake Sasori.

Sasori and I already knew that Kabuto would betray him, but I wonder why he would tell someone about this. Soon, a leaf ninja jumped out of the Sasori disguise when Kabuto attacked him. While the ninja was still in the air, Orochimaru sent hundreds of snakes to trap the ninja. At the same time I sent a wave of shurikens and kunais, nailing the snakes' heads on the bridge. The ninja landed a few feet back before he and the other two ninjas looked at the weapons in confusion.

From where I was hiding I could not hear what the three were saying, but a short while later the leaf ninja ordered his other teammates to come out. Naruto, Sakura, and a black hair ninja popped in between Orochimaru and their leader.

I watched the group talking when an cloud of dust and wood shot across the center of the bridge, starting from where Naruto was standing. Naruto appeared at the opposite side of the bridge as orange bubbles formed a shape of a fox with three tails on him.

_'This is bad!'_

"In my presence, don't you dare talk of Sasuke as though he belongs to you!" Naruto yelled. Orange waves of chakra came off of Naruto and spread throughout the forest.

'_His chakra hurts..._' I rubbed seal on the nape of my neck, hoping the burning feeling would go away. The third Hokage placed it on me a long time ago, but I never got the chance to ask him what it was for. _'I better stop this before things get worse.'_

I made a step forward when a flash of pain entered my body.

'_What the-'_

_**'Let me out!'**_

_**'**N-not now.'_

While I still had control over my body I created a earth clone to continue my original mission. My clone bolted off towards Naruto and Orochimaru's direction as my vision began to fade.

_'Crap...'_

**"It's show time!" Shugo Ryuu shouted**

* * *

**_Flashback_**

I was seated in the center of the Hokage's office, slowly waking up from Kakashi's knock out attack. There was a cold feeling on the nape of my neck leading to the center of my chest.

"Hokage-sama, why does she need this seal?" Kakashi asked from behind me

"Kakashi... I know it doesn't seem like the thing inside her is planning to kill her. Instead it seems like it is helping her, but we are still not sure what they might do..." The third Hokage stated "Her eight trigrams seal is not complete, so the beasts can come out anytime they want. Therefore to be on the safe side, we are going to place this seal to help increase the strength of the eight trigrams seal."

"Even if you put that on, wouldn't 'he' still be able to break the seal and free them?" Kakashi continued to ask and the third Hokage sadly sighed.

"He can't break the seal unless he kills the three of us... Or if the beasts combine..."

Before I could say a thing the Hokage slammed his palm on my back, activating the seal and at the same time knocking out cold.

**_End Flashback_**

* * *

'_Whose 'he' and why didn't I remember this before?'_

I clutched my head in pain with my free hand and I held something close to me with my other hand. There was a burning pain spreading across my back and shoulder, but I quickly forgot about the pain when I heard a moan. Looking down to see what I was holding to find Sakura holding her arm and unconscious.

'_Sakura? What on Earth happened?'_

_'**Look behind you.'**_

I did as I was told and found a large orange figure with four tails standing behind me.**  
**

"Naruto..."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Naruto..." I breathed out.

Naruto roared as he started to break though the wood wrapped around him. I gently placed Sakura on the ground with my tattered cloak to let Kabuto heal her, ignoring the fact that he is only healing her so she could help take down the Akatsuki.

"With that said, it was you who brought that thing here. So, you're the ones who'll have to do something about it." Kabuto stated after he finished healing Sakura.

Meanwhile, I slowly got up to my feet to face Naruto when Kabuto got out of his trap and appeared beside me.

"I will see you soon, Akatsuki-chan." He whispered before vanishing in thin air.

My eyes slightly narrowed to his comment before turning red and gold. Suddenly Naruto roared once again and swung his recently freed arm in my direction. I swiftly caught his arm with both hands, allowing his chakra burn my skin.

"Naruto! Snap out of it!" I screamed, but it only seemed to have angered him even more. Naruto applied more force on his hand, causing the ground to crumble beneath me. I continued to call his name as I tried to push back his hand, when before I knew it a orange blur smacked the mask off my face.

From the corner of my eye I saw the mask shatter into a million pieces when it made contact with the ground.

_**'Let go him, brat!'**_

**'**_No!'_I gazed up to Naruto's face and screamed once again, but instead of using the angry tone like before this time my voice sounded sad and painful. At last Naruto stopped and stared at my face.

"Hokage-shiki jijuun jutsu! Kaku'an nitten-suishu!" The older leaf ninja shouted.

He quickly came in and pressed his hand in the center of Naruto's chest before jumping out, carrying me along with him. Wooden pillars shot up from the ground, encircling Naruto. Slowly Naruto returned back to normal and passed out. His skin was still orange, but there were some parts that you can see his normal skin color. The leaf ninja got up from his position and carried Naruto to Sakura for her to heal.

'_I should probably go...' _

I got up to leave when the leaf ninja called me. "You! You're an Akatsuki member. Why did you protect Sakura and help calm Naruto?"

I remained silent as picked up my shattered mask, which turned into dust when my fingers made contact.

"Aw man... I need a new mask now..." I muttered under my breath when the ninja called me again.

"Answer my question."

"...I quit the Akatsuki... Besides it's my ninja way." I answered as I pulled my hood over my head.

"That saying... Are you really her..." She murmured and kept her eyes on me. I gave her a faint smile as I joined her on healing Naruto.

We both healed Naruto in silence until Sakura asked the other ninja, Yamato, about teaching her how to use his previous jutsu. Yamato explained that he couldn't because she has to be able to use the wood element to use the jutsu.

"Same as always... I can only do the dumbest things for Naruto." Sakura said with a fake smile. I narrowed my eyes at her and let out a sigh.

"Sakura, it is not what you do for Naruto that's important..." I stated as I finished up with my part of the healing.

"That's right. It's how strongly you feel about him that counts." Yamato added while to glanced at her arm. "Sakura, I can tell by just looking at you that you-"

"S-Sakura-chan? Ouch!" Naruto groaned as he slowly sat up.

'_Crap!' _I quickly jumped up to my feet ready to run off when Yamato grabbed my arm.

"You're not going anywhere without saying 'hello.'" Yamato told me with a smirk adorn onf his face. I sent him a glare and tugged on my hood in hopes of Naruto or Sakura not being able to see me.

"Naruto..." Sakura sighed in relief as tears filled her eyes.

"Huh? What happened to me? Eh? Sakura-chan, why are you crying?" Naruto jumped to his feet and bombarded Sakura with questions and assumptions. "Aha! It was that jerk Sai again, ey! What is it this time? Butt-ugly? Freak of nature? That jerk!"

All of a sudden Sakura sent a punch straight into Naruto's stomach. "Moron... Coming up with 'freak of nature' all on your own."

'Two and a half years and they are still the same.'

I could not help but smile at Naruto and Sakura's antics.

"Oh, that's right! Yamato-taichou, what happened to Sai?" Sakura asked

"Yeah, Sai. Right now, he's moving together with Orochimaru." Yamato answered and his two teammates looked at him with shock. Naruto finally noticed me in Yamato's grasp.

"You're..." Naruto began as he approached me.

I began to panic as Naruto got closer and before he could touch my hood I slipped out of Yamato's grip just in time.

"Shouldn't you guys go to where Sai and Orochimaru were at?" I asked as I started to creep away. This time Sakura reached out to grab me, but I swiftly dodged her hand. "Uh... I'll meet you all there."

With that I bolted off to the massive crater where Naruto and Orochimaru fought.

* * *

At the crater

Naruto and his team soon came to the crater, examining the scene. Meanwhile, I picked up a small picture book from the ground.

"The ground is still fresh..." Naruto stated as he stirred up the ground with his foot. "First the bridge is destroyed, then this crater here... What on Earth happened?"

"You remember nothing?" Yamato asked and narrowed his eyes as if he was recalling something.

Naruto looked at the three of us in confusion. "Oh yeah... How come I was unconscious and all?"

Yamato and I glanced over to Sakura who looked like she was thinking about whether or not to tell him what really happened. I inwardly sighed and turned my attention to Naruto.

"You got knocked out by Orochimaru and as for the bridge and crater... Orochimaru and I were fighting..." I answered, carefully picking my words. Naruto's face instantly turned sour after hearing my explanation.

"So that's it! Damn him!" Naruto exclaim as he clenched his fist in fron of his face. I glanced back at Sakura to see her mouth the words "thank you" and I lightly nodded.

Sakura then scanned the ground to see all of Sai's belongings were scattered all over the ground. She asked Yamato what happened to Sai and he told her that his wood clone only saw him and Orochimaru discussing about something before following him. Sakura then asked if he was taken by force, but I answered that he didn't since my clone was also watching the whole thing as well and my clone saw him hand a file over to Orochimaru when Kabuto tackled him to the ground. Therefore having all of his belongings ending up where they are now. Sakura and Yamato soon started to talk about Danzo and how he might be planning to destroy Konoha when I zoned out to see what my clone was doing.

"We have to get on to their trail at once." Yamato's voice snapped me out of my daze.

"Alright! Let's go..." Naruto announced, but strangely his tone ended weak. I spun around to see Naruto about to fall face flat to the ground.

Before he could hit the ground I caught him and gently laid him down. Sakura rushed up to us and examined him.

"I know it'd be best to start the pursuit at once but... In the shape he's in right now, Naruto-" Sakura explained when Yamato cut her off.

"In that case, we'll leave him behind. He should have enough strength to go back to the village on his own."

Sakura angrily looked back at Yamato, "Kakashi-sensei would never-"

She was cut off once again by Naruto.

"Don't worry about me... I'm good to go." Naruto weakly stated.

Yamato started to explain to Sakura about how he was not like Kakashi and how the mission about Orochimaru is more important. Soon Sakura hesitantly agreed.

"And besides we have her to help out too." Yamato happily stated as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

"What on Earth are you talking about? Why would I help you guys?" I snapped and slipped out of Yamato's hand.

"Because... I have a feeling you know Naruto and Sakura more than anyone else and you wouldn't betray them." Yamato explained.

I froze slightly to his comment, but quickly came up with a rebuttal. "I don't know them... And besides how do you know I wouldn't betray them?"

"Like you said before when you helped them..." Yamato then leaned closer to my ear. "It is you ninja way."

I sent Yamato a dark look and he merely smirked at my expression.

"Well then it's settled. We have a new team member." Yamato smiled as he patted me on the back.

'_... What have I done?'_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Right now Yamato's team and I are jumping from tree to tree to get to our destination. Naruto was still with us, seeing that he quickly recovered after a short break. I was quite thankful for his quick recovery and I wanted to stay with him during this mission. However, another part of my told me that I shouldn't get too close to them. Not that I was afraid that they would hurt me, but I was afraid that I would hurt them. Especially with the case with Gaara and my reputation...

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled

My head snapped upwards to see Sakura falling to her doom. Before she could reach halfway to the ground, I rushed into catch her. Unfortuneltly when Sakura made contact with my arms a pulse of pain rushed through my arm and back, stunning my movements. By the time I regained control, Sakura and I were too close to the ground to land properly.

'_There is only one thing I can do now...'_

I tightened my arms around Sakura as I forced myself to be on the bottom.

"What are you-" Sakura began, but was cut off when my back hit the ground.

My head started to spin and the wound on my back ached even more than usual. I could barely focus on my surroundings, but my body subconsciously moved by itself and gently placed Sakura by a tree.

"Are you okay Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked worriedly, kneeling in front of her and caught sight of her wound. "When did you get hurt?"

"Th-This..." Sakura started as she glanced at my direction. I softly sighed and quickly fabricated a lie.

"Orochimaru hit her when she was trying to help me... Sorry, I let your friend get injured..."

Naruto looked up at me with surprise in his face before turning his attention back to Sakura.

"Sakura-chan... You shouldn't put yourself in danger like that." Naruto lightly scolded, he then got up to his feet to approach me. I felt my heart rate increase as he got closer.

'_Why am I feeling nervous?'_

He finally stopped when he was only a few feet away from my body. Meanwhile, I stared at our feet, my eyes refusing to look at Naruto. He stood before me for a while in silence when I notice his hand move up as if he was asking for a hand shake. I shyly glanced up to see Naruto's face to find him wearing his usual idiotic grin.

"Thanks for saving Sakura-chan." Naruto happily stated. I stared at his hand for a moment, unsure if I should accept the hand shake or not, but in the end I hesitantly took his his hand into mine.

"... No problem..." I murmured when Yamato called Naruto aside. Naruto rushed over to Yamato's side, while Sakura called me.

"Hey! Come here so I can heal your injuries."

I softly smiled to Sakura's demands as I sat down beside her. Sakura immediately began healing my wounds once I took a seat on the ground. While we sat in silence I glanced over to Naruto and Yamato to see Naruto's shocked expression turned into determination.

'_I wonder what they are talking about...'_

"Hey... You're Kurokami Hikaru, right?" Sakura quietly asked from behind.

"... No... What makes you say that?" I responded in the same quiet tone.

"... You act like her..." Sakura replied, sadness lingering in her tone. "And what Garra said when he woke up."

I suddenly felt sick after absorbing her words into my mind. It has been two and a half years since I left. Shouldn't they have already forgotten me by now? So, why do they always ask if I am who they think I am? Sure they are looking for Sasuke right now, but back then I felt that they were closer to him than with me. Sakura was hopelessly in love with him while Naruto thought of him as a brother and rival. Meanwhile, I sat in the sidelines watching over them as an ANBU member or as a teammate. So, why do they seem like they are searching for me as well? Besides, didn't Tsunade tell them?

The questions rambled in my head to the point that I couldn't take it anymore. I silently stood up and pulled out the picture book I had found earlier. Sakura sent me a questioning look when I handed her the book.

"This is your teammate's book, right?" I asked. She nodded and took the book out of my hands, never taking her eyes off me. "Since you and your teammates seem to be fine I'm going to go on my own. Thanks for tending my injuries."

With that I slowly walked away from her. Sakura instantly shouted to me, commanding me to stop, but I kept going. Wooden pillars instantly shot up from the ground around me.

"What are you doing?" Yamato asked in a strict tone. I merely glanced to his direction as I answered.

"I'm leaving to do my original mission."

Yamato opened his mouth to say something, while I quickly created a few hand signs. Black and white electricity sparked off my entire body as I punched one of the pillars in front of my. The pillars and the ground before me flew in all different directions.

'_Whoops... I used too much electricity.'_

I continued to walk again when a Naruto called, "Wait! Tell me. Who are you?"

For some reason, I could not make myself look back at Naruto and everyone else. Instead, I kept looking forward while I gave him a brief response.

"I am someone who you shouldn't have any connections with." Before anyone could ask anything else I darted off into the tree and away the group.

* * *

(3rd person perspective)

The girl in black ran off without letting the three have the chance to ask her more questions. Naruto sadly stared out towards the trees where the mysterious girl disappeared, as if he had just lost someone important. He had no idea why, but whenever he saw the girl in black he felt a sense of warmth and comfort that he had never felt with anyone... Except for Hikaru.

"Naruto..." Sakura murmured out from where she was seated. Naruto merely glanced back to her, while she continued to speak. "Doesn't that girl seem like Hikaru?"

"Yeah... Do you think that it's her?" Naruto asked with a bit of hope.

"No, that's impossible." Yamato stated

Both Naruto and Sakura sent Yamato a confused look when they asked, "Why?"

Yamato's eyes slightly widen after hearing their question, but he quickly closed his eyes.

"... She is dead."

Naruto and Sakura were silent as they replayed the new information in their heads.

"Since when..." Naruto muttered out "Since when did she die!"

Yamato sadly gazed at Naruto whose body was trembling in rage and Sakura who was on the verge of crying.

"About two and a half years ago..."

"Two and a half years ago?! That's impossible! She..." Naruto yelled when he a memory appeared in his head.

* * *

**_Flashback_**

Kakashi and Pakkun were traveling though the trees with Naruto on Kakashi's back. Beside Kakashi was his clone carrying Hikaru who was barely awake.

"...Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto mumbled, while he regained his consciousness. "...Where's Sasuke?"

Everyone was unable to say anything to Naruto, knowing that he will defiantly become depressed. At that very moment, several medical ninjas appeared.

"Kakashi-san! How is Uzumaki Naruto and Kurokami Hikaru's condition?" One of the medical ninjas asked.

'_Hikaru is here?'_ Naruto thought as he wearily looked around for her.

"Naruto is alright, but Hikaru..." Kakashi trailed off as he peered over to Hikaru.

A medical ninja went over to check he condition, but by one look he quickly took Hikaru out of the clone's hands.

"This is bad. We need to bring her to the hospital! Quick!" The medical ninja stated before he rushed off.

Before the medical ninja left with Hikaru, Naruto was able to see how she looked. Her skin was pale and there was a shallow, but large hole in the center of her chest. Blood kept pouring out from her wound and the corner of her mouth, but despite her condition, she still wore a weak smile for Naruto.

"Hikaru!" Naruto tried to raise his voice, but his voice only came out as a whisper.

Hikaru pulled one side of her lips to form a smirk, "Don't worry, Naruto... It's okay." She murmured back when the ninja left with her in his arms.

Time skip

Naruto sat in the bed, covered in bandages as he stared at the two headbands on his lap. One with a scratch over the village symbol and one with patches of dry blood. Shikamaru and Sakura had just left after talking to him, leaving him alone with Tsunade.

"How's Hikaru?" Naruto asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

Tsunade stared at Naruto as a memory replayed in her head. "... She... She's fine, but she is asleep right now."

A bright smile instantly appeared on Naruto's face after hearing the news. He turned back to the two headbands on his lap and tried to scrub off the dried blood with his sleeve. After several failed attempts he held out the blue headband towards Tsunade.

"Tsunade-obachan, can you give this to back to Hikaru?" Naruto asked. A tick mark popped up on her forehead when she heard what Naruto called her, but quickly vanished.

She gently pushed back Naruto's hand as she spoke in a strained tone, "Hikaru asked me to tell you to keep it until she comes to see you."

Naruto gave Tsunade a confused look before another bright smile appeared on his face.

"Alright!"

**_End Flashback_**

* * *

Back with Naruto

"... Does it have to do with her wound on her chest?" Naruto asked in a low tone.

Yamato continued to look at Naruto with an emotionless face as he shook his head.

"No, she did not die in battle."

"Then how?!" Naruto shouted.

Yamato softly sighed, "You'll need to ask the fifth Hokage to know all the details..."

The group fell into a depressing silence until Sakura broke it by calling Naruto and Yamato over to see Sai's picture book. Naruto took a step towards Sakura when he suddenly he felt something beneath his foot. Beneath his foot was a small wooden doll laying on the ground, wearing the same jacket and shorts as the girl in black.

'_What's this?' _Naruto picked up the doll from the ground to examine it, but his time was cut short when Sakura called him again.

_'It's probably that girl's doll... I'll give it back when I see her again.'_


	6. Chapter 6

To all readers: Thank you all for reading my story and I wanted to say this earlier. That if anyone would like to see a pairing scene of a character and my oc let me know and I will see what I can do. Thanks again!

* * *

Chapter 6

Outside of Orochimaru's hideout

(First person perspective)

Inside the dark tunnel, my hand gingerly brushed the stone wall seperating me from Orochimaru's hideout. I bend the stone to create a hole big enough for my to crawl though.

'_Now... Time to find what Sasori and I are looking for.'_

I explored the hideout for hours, cautiously checking every room I passed by. However, so far I could not find what I was looking for. There were about ten more doors in this hall and one more hall to go.

"Urgh... Where is it?!" I grumbled a second after opening one of the doors.

"I see that you finally made it." A low voice spoke behind me. I instantly spun around as I pulled out my kunai, ready to attack when I met eye contact with the person behind me.

"Orochimaru..." I muttered and Orochimaru sneered.

My eyes shifted from to his hands to find what I was looking for. A gold shakujo with white rings and a black and red sword. The sage of six paths' main weapons.

"Give those back." I demanded and Orochimaru began to snicker.

"And why would I do that if..." Orochimaru stated, as several snakes coiled up my legs. "I can just take your body right now?"

"Heh... Try me." I replied with a smirk, while the snakes wrapped my entire body. Electricity sparked off my body once again, slicing the snake into pieces.

My hands quickly formed one hand symbol. "Bedrock coffin."

Sections of rock shot up from the ground, surrounding Orochimaru and quickly slammed together. However, once the rocks slammed together I felt Orochimaru was already standing behind me. As fast as I could, I formed another hand symbol and turned my head just enough to see his eyes.

"Mirror of hell." I muttered.

A tall ebony mirror manifested itself before us. Orochimaru stared at the mirror with curiousity as three people stepped out of the mirror. A man and a women who looked similar to Orochimaru and the third Hokage. Orochimaru stood there staring at the three people in awe, when he suddenly started laughing.

"That is one fasinating jutsu..." Orochimaru's face turned serious and slaughtered the three in a second. "It's too bad that it would not work on me."

I gritted my teeth in annoyance as he turned back to look at me.

_'What can I do now? That jutsu took most of my chakra already.'_

Then unexpectedly, I found the two weapons being tossed towards my direction. I swiftly caught the weapons before they hit the ground as I gave Orochimaru a confused look. He merely responded my expression with a sly smile.

"I will need to get a stronger body before I can take yours." Orochimaru stated as he turned his back on me. "Besides, it seems that your friends are about to see Sasuke-kun."

"Wha-" A sound of an explosion interrupted me. _'That's not good!'_

With that thought I dashed to the direction of the sound, after strapping the two weapons on my back. By the time I reached the area, I found Sasuke about to stab Sakura with an electric charged sword.

_'I have to hurry!' _I flashed in between Sasuke and Sakura, my sword with withdrawn from its sheath. I swung my sword towards Sasuke's direction, sending a gust of wind to force him back and at the same time dispel the electricity.

Sasuke stared at me, while I activated Rennigan. I noticed he opened his mouth to say something when we saw Naruto trying to get up. His nails grew sharp and his eyes were red. Sasuke and I then turned our attention to Naruto, transporting us into his mind.

* * *

In Naruto's mind

"Get lost!" Naruto demanded as he held his hand out against a gigantic fox head.

Sasuke, along with me, appeared by Naruto's side as we faced the gigantic fox.

"So, this is the kyubi..." I whispered and the fox's eyes widened.

"Impressive that you've become able to see me inside Naruto... Such would be the power of the accursed Sharingan and..." The kyubi's eyes shifted to my direction. "The rennigan."

Naruto glanced back and forth at me and Sasuke, confused and worried about what is happening.

"Well, it would appear that this isn't the first time you've gazed into eyes such like these... Which would make you the nine tail fox, no doubt." Sasuke stated, even though I already announced that.

"Eyes with such power and chakra even more sinister than my own... Not at all unlike what I once saw in a certain Uchiha Madara." Kyubi stated

_'Uchiha Madara?'_

Angeredby the Kyubi's statement, Sasuke grabbed the Kyubi's nose causing him to pop. _  
_

"And you expect me to know that person why now?" Sasuke replied

"Unbelievable... To think that you'd be able to suppress my powers. I thought that only the girl was the only one... I may not see you again, but I warn you... Don't kill Naruto." The Kyubi told us and we returned into reality.

* * *

I tore my gaze away from Naruto and to Sasuke.

"I see that you're about the same as the last time I met you, Sasuke." I nonchalantly stated.

Expecting to earn a glare from him by my words, but instead he looked at me with a hint of care and hurt in his eyes. I continued to gaze in his eyes when he suddenly disappeared. Knowing him he would probably show up behind me and usually I would turn around to face him. However, I don't know why, but this time I allowed him to get the upper hand.

A second after, I felt him standing behind me. "And I see that you still wear this hood to cover your face... Hikaru." Right after saying that he pulled the back off my hood. I tried to turn around to prevent him from revealing my face. Unfortunately, I was too late.

My rennigan eyes were gazing into his sharingan eyes, both ignoring our surroundings. His eyes slightly widened when he saw my face, but he quickly returned to his emotionless expression. I was not surprised since I had not shown anyone my face ever since I left the village. The only people who has seen my face were the Akatsuki members. When I first joined the organization or when I passed out.

Sasuke's hand slowly reached up to touch my face when Yamato summoned a half-dome shaped blockade around us. Sasuke and I instantly noticed this. I was about to break myself out of the blockade when I felt an arm wrap around my waist. Before I knew it I was standing beside Sasuke, staring down at Naruto and his team.

"What on Earth..." I muttered and shot a glare at Sasuke. He simply ignored my glare and kept his gaze on Naruto.

"H-Hikaru... S-Sasuke..." Naruto breathed out, then his brow knitted together. "Why don't you get it?! You're body is going to be stolen by Orochimaru anytime now!"

Silence took over us as we all stared at Sasuke, waiting for his answer.

"If that happens... Then it happens." Sasuke answered emotionlessly. "You're still quite the kid, Naruto. Revenge means everything to me. As long as I can have my revenge, I could care less what happens to me, or the whole world for that matter."

I felt my anger rise as Sasuke continued to speak.

"Let me make it clear for you... For both me and Orochimaru right now, killing Itachi would be impossible. But if I am able to accomplish my goals. Through nothing more than offering Orochimaru this body of mine. I'd give my life over and over again."

His last sentence pushed me over the edge. My hand automatically aimed for his face, but of course he caught my fist and the second fist I sent towards him.

"... You jerk! You promised..." My voice lowered to a whisper. "You promised that you would take care of yourself..."

Sasuke lessen his grip on my fists and opened his mouth to say something when Yamato cut in.

"Let's end the talk." Sasuke turned to look at Yamato, letting go of my hands. "Naruto, Sakura, I didn't want you to use violence on him, but... I'm sorry we'll get serious."

"Yamato-taichou..." Sakura breathed out.

"With Konoha or with you I'm done... It's over." Sasuke formed a hand seal and brought his hand up into the air. Suddenly, before I could stop Sasuke, Orochimaru came in and grabbed Sasuke's hand.

"Don't use that technique."

"Let go." Sasuke demanded.

Kabuto soon showed up and convinced Sasuke to not use the technique. Sasuke listened to what Kabuto said and decided not to.

"Let's go." Orochimaru said as he let go of Sasuke's hand. He then glanced at me. "Are you going to come as well?"

I glared at Orochimaru as I replied. "No."

Orochimaru merely smirked before disappearing in flames with Kabuto and Sasuke. I stared at the empty space where Orochimaru and Sasuke were standing. When a sound of sobbing caught my ears. Glancing over to my right I saw Naruto and Sakura crying over their failure. My chest tightened to this sight of them crying, but what could I do? I didn't help them stop Sasuke and I kept lying to them, so why should they trust me.

"You've still got about 6 months... And since three's better than two, and I'm pretty strong as it is." Sai stated.

"... That's right Naruto, Sakura... The more the better." I said softly.

Naruto slowly wiped his eyes and looked up to me and Sai. I greeted him with a soft smile and he returned the smile.

"Heheh... Thanks."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Naruto got up from his spot and jumped up beside me. Out of nowhere, worry took over my body when he stood in front of me. I tried to look up to see his face, but I couldn't. My body refused to do what I wanted.

'_What should I do now? What is he going to do?'_

All of a sudden, I felt a pair of strong arms pull me into an embrace.

"Hikaru... You're alive." Naruto whispered in relief, then he tightened his grip. "Why didn't you tell me who you were?"

My heart tightened at his saddened voice. "N-Naruto... I'm sorry, but..."

Naruto loosened his arms to peer down on my face, "But what?"

My eyes locked on to his blue eyes, unable to move away and for some reason, the pace of my heart quickened.

"L-like I told you before... I am someone who you shouldn't have any connections with." I whispered the last part. Once again Naruto drew me in for another embrace.

"I don't understand... But I am not letting you go too." Naruto spoke with a strong tone.

"Naruto..." I whispered and gently placed my hands on his back.

"Hey, Naruto! Don't keep Hikaru all to yourself!" Sakura shouted.

Naruto and I instantly separated from each other as a blush spread across our faces. I quickly jumped down to greet Sakura and at the same time trying to push away the heat in my face.

Once I landed Sakura immediately envelopes me with a quick hug.

"We missed you."

A sad smile appeared on my face to her words and I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm sorry."

In the side lines, Yamato and Sai were watching our reunion when finally Yamato called out to Naruto and Sakura, telling them that they had to go. Naruto and Sakura nodded and began to walk away with the other two, while I stayed back.

'_I got what I wanted, so what should I do now?'_

While I was deciding what to do next a hand abruptly grabbed my wrist. My head instantly snapped towards the owner's direction to see Naruto grinning at me. I was about to say something when Naruto started pulling me along to join his group.

"What are you-"

"You're coming back with us!" Naruto answered before I could finish. My legs immediately froze, stopping Naruto as well. He looked back at me with a confused look on his face.

"I can't go back with you." I bluntly stated. Naruto's confusion was quickly replaced with shock.

"Why?" He asked, slightly tilting his head to the side.

I glazed at his innocent appearance before casting my eyes down to the ground. Old memories of why I left Konoha rushed into my mind.

_'How can I tell him why without him getting angry at Tsunade... And finding out the terrible sins I did...'_

"I..." I mumbled then looked up to meet Naruto's gaze. My voice raised along with my confidence. "I'm a criminal. My head cost more than ten million ryo, so you shouldn't associate with me... Unless you want to turn me in?"

Naruto turned his whole body to face me and tightly grabbed my shoulders. I instinctively peered up to look at his angered expression.

"I don't care and I would never turn you in!" He exclaimed in a serious tone, causing me to become speechless. "Also I told you before... I'm not letting you go."

'_Naruto...'_ I stared at him for a while until I was finally able to talk, "...Thank you..."

* * *

Back at Konoha- Hokage Tower

I was sitting outside of the Hokage's office, while everyone else was talking to Tsunade. My hood was on my head again, shading my face to avoid any unwanted attention. When I felt a familiar presence approaching. I turned to my right to see someone who I'd rather go to prison than see him again, Shimura Danzo.

I could feel his stare as he approached me, but I ignored it. He soon appeared in front of me and I continued to watch him, hoping he would just walk by. However, he suddenly swung his cane at me. I swiftly caught his cane with one hand and prepared myself for a second attack. As expected, he pulled out a kunai hidden under his sleeve and aimed for my chest.

'_Shadow blade.' _A black misty blade formed on my arm as I blocked his attack.

A small smirk showed up on his face as he jumped back. "I see that you have grown a lot since you left, two face demon."

"Thank you, Danzo-San." I replied and his smirk widened.

Unexpectedly, he began to walk away from me when he spoke. "I will see you at headquarters."

'_I guess he is talking about ANBU headquarters...'_

As I continued to watch Danzo walk away, the office door suddenly slammed open. Naruto and Sakura quickly popped out off the room and grabbed my arms.

"Come on! This way!" Sakura excitedly stated as she dragged me into the room with Naruto.

Inside the room, Yamato was smiling at me with Sai, while Tsunade and Shizune looked at me with curiosity. Soon I was standing before Tsunade with Naruto and Sakura on either side of me. I was not too sure what to do now that I was in front of Tsunade, when suddenly I felt my hood being pulled off my head. Shock instantly took over Tsunade and Shizune when they saw my face.

"Look who we brought back instead, Tsunade-obachan!" Naruto beamed.

"Hikaru..." Tsunade gasped and a lightly bobbed my head with a fake smile adorn on my face. "I thought that you were dead."

I slowly opened my mouth to say something when Sakura spoke, "Shishou, I was wondering why didn't you tell us about Hikaru's 'death' before?"

"I told her not to." I answered without looking at her. I could see Naruto and glancing turning their heads to look at me.

"Why?" Naruto asked in a soft tone.

"Because... You were going to go train with Jiraiya, so I didn't want you to be bumed out or loose you concentration on your training." I nonchalantly replied as I turned to look at him.

"Then why did you fake you death in the first place?" Sakura asked and I gazed at the ground.

"It wasn't suppose to be fake..." I quietly muttered, but everyone still heard what I said.

"What do you mean?" Sakura continued to ask.

I softly smile and glanced up at Tsunade again to see her wearing a somber expression.

"I will tell you later."

Tsunade quietly stared at me for a while longer before speaking, "Okay then, I've already got a mission lined up for you guys. I assume Hikaru will be joining as well."

I nodded, earning a smile from Tsunade before she explained what the mission was. After she finished, Naruto and Sakura immediately brought me to Ramen Ichiraku as a reunion lunch. I listened to the two happily chat away, when the next thing we knew was that the sun had already departed and the moon had taken over the night sky.

The three of us said our goodbyes and head back home. Luckily, I was still able to keep the same apartment that I had ever since I came to Konoha, which was also right next to Naruto's apartment. At the front of our doors, Naruto and I said goodnight as we entered our homes. Strangely, I had a warm yet sad feeling in my body when we both went into our homes. As if I missed spending time with my two old teammates. I quickly swept the feeling away when I scanned my old home.

'_Ah... Home sweet home.' _I sighed and was about to flop on my bed when I recalled something that I must do.

* * *

ANBU Headquarters

"You came." a low voice stated as the sound footsteps approached.

Of course, I knew who it was just by hearing his disgusting voice. I forced myself to drop to one knee and lowered my head. "Danzo-san."

"I thought that you were suppose to be executed for what you did 'that' day." Danzo stated and stopped in front of me. His eye bored on my head. "But then... on the day of your execution I heard that the whole village was destroyed due to some... unknown carnage..."

I could hear the tone of his voice change to delight at his very last words. My jaw instantly clenched together.

"Do you want to rejoin the ANBU?" He asked and I merely nodded. "Stand up."

I did as I was told and suddenly a small pile of clothes was shoved into my arms. It was the usual uniform, but there were only a few changes. A different mask design and the back of my uniform had two slots to put weapons in. The mask was in a shape of a dog, like my old mask. However, there was a symbol of an eclipse in the center of the forehead, exactly the same as my old village. There was a red outline around the left eyes, a gold outline around the right eye, and three jagged lines on both cheeks of the mask.

"Why-" I began when Danzo cut me off.

"I had the mask specifically designed for you and I had two weapon slots for you to keep your sword and shakujo."

_'He really did that?... This is the nicest thing he had ever done for me, but there is probably a catch to this.'_

Either way, I bowed to him and said my thanks. As I slowly started to walk away, Danzo stopped me.

"You were an Akatsuki member, correct?"

I glanced back at the old man as I replied, "Yes..."

"Have you ever met the leader? In person?" Danzo slightly narrowed his eye at me, paying close attention to my face.

"... I have..." I responded expressionlessly

"Where is his located?" Danzo questioned

_'So, that's what he wants?' _

My mouth moved by itself to form a response, "He moves around a lot, so he I cannot say. Also the Akatsuki doesn't have any main headquarter, in case you were wondering."

Danzo stared at me for a while, as if he was trying to read my mind. However, in the end he sighed and walked away. Guessing that I was allowed to go too, I quickly returned to my room.

* * *

In apartment

I placed my uniform into my closet, hidden beneath all of my other clothes and other belongings. While I headed over to my bed a sudden pain invaded my head. My body was paralyzed and my knees buckled beneath me, causing me to drop to the ground.

'_W-What's going on?'_

"You returned to Konoha, huh, Hikaru..." A voice stated in my head

"Pein?" I murmured with surprise. "...How did you know?"

"Did you really think that I wouldn't know that you left?" Pein replied

'_I bet Zetsu-San was spying on me this whole time.'_

"... You broke your part of the deal, so I broke mine." I casually stated

"You know that we cannot complete our objective without getting all of the jinkjurikis."

I gritted my teeth to his response. I had always known that they needed to collect all of the tail beasts, but back then I thought that if I was with them maybe they could spare Gaara and... Naruto... Clearly I was wrong.

"... Why didn't you tell that man about where we are?" Pein asked after the awkward silence.

A small smile appeared on my face without me realizing.

"Why I wonder..."


	8. Chapter 8

mg4of6: I am glad that you like the story! I hope you will continue reading.

* * *

Chapter 8

Next day

Strangely, I had been having a bad feeling today, but this feeling was different from the usual senses. This feeling grew stronger and stronger to the point I could barely breathe. Ever since the Askatsuki did their first extraction, this feeling had filled my chest.

I swept my thoughts aside as I entered the Hokage office to turn in my ANBU report. When I got there, Tsunade was fast asleep with her paperwork surrounding her. I really wanted to give her my report later, seeing that she had so much paperwork to do, but right now I couldn't think straight. I quietly placed the report in front of her and left.

On my way back to the apartment complex, I caught sight of Naruto sitting on a few steps with a sorrowful expression on his face.

'_I guess I will go talk to him...'_

I leapt onto a nearby tree and called out to him. He flinched and looked at my direction.

"Who are you?" He asked as he got up to his feet.

"Oh, sorry. You probably don't recognize me with my new mask." I replied.

Naruto blinked a few times before growing wide.

"You're that girl that helped me out a lot before!" he exclaimed, pointing at me. I lightly laughed and nodded.

"... What's wrong?" I asked. Naruto gaped at my abrupt question and after a few minutes he sat down with a sigh.

"It... Has something to do with a mission I failed..." He muttered out, his gaze met the floor again.

"You mean... Your mission with Sasuke?" I could see him freeze a bit when I mentioned Sasuke's name. "You know, your friend might act different now, but you can always help him to change back."

Naruto's head shot up to look at me, his face was filled with surprise, but soon his surprise turned into a small smile.

"Thanks... But it is not just Sasuke." He responded in a barely audible voice.

"Hm?"

"... There is another friend that I am worried about..." Naruto sadly stated, his eyes casted off to the side as if he was remembering something.

"What's wrong with your friend?"

A small frown was painted on his face as he explained, "There isn't really anything wrong with her... It's just that she is my best friend and when me and my team found her, she..." He trailed off.

"She?" I repeated, hoping he would continue. Instead he turned to look at me with a forced smile.

"I don't know."

'_I wonder what he is worried about.'_

I narrowed my eyes to his expression when I spoke, "Hey Naruto... I have a challenge for you."

Naruto's fake expression instantly transformed to curiosity and asked what my challenge was.

"You still want to be Hokage, right?" I asked.

"Of course!" Naruto answered with his usual grin

"Alright, if you can prove to me that you can become a Hokage... I will show you my face."

Naruto's face lit up with excitement and he jumped up to his feet. "I will definitely become a Hokage! Believe it!"

"Good luck." I said with a smile that was hidden beneath my mask. Just then I heard Sakura calling out to Naruto.

'_I better go.'_

* * *

While Naruto was distracted I bolted back to my room and quickly changed back to my usual clothes. Right after changing, my chest felt like it was being crushed by boulders, and every single cell in my body was screaming, telling me that there is danger. But where?

_'What on Earth is going on?'_

_'**Matatabi is calling me!'**_

_**'**Who?'_

_'**The two-tail beast! We have to go now!'**_

Without another word, I forced myself to walk out of my house, ignoring the fact that my entire body trembling in pain. Before I could open the door I sensed someone behind me. I instinctively turned to to punch the intruder when I saw Deva path Pein standing behind me.

"Pein... Why are you here?" I grumbled, his face slightly twitched to the name, which he forbade me to call him.

"We can't have you interrupting our plans." He stated as three more of his paths appeared behind him.

Without looking away from the four Pein paths I quickly opened the door to run out, only to run into two more Pein paths. The two immediately seized my arms and carried me back into my home. I was brought into my living room.

My sofa, coffee table, and other items were pushed aside, making a empty circle in the middle. The two Pein paths forced me down to my knees in the center of the circle, holding me in place, while the others were painting something on the ground.

"What are you doing?" I muttered as I scanned my surroundings and realized that they were making concentric circles around me.

"I'm increasing the seal." Deva path stated as he started to make a hand sign.

'_Seal? Which seal?'_

Before I could utter a single syllable, the two paths jumped back to join the others surrounding me, forming the same hand sign as them. I was about to get out of the circles when Deva path's palm pressed against my forehead.

A wave of unbearable pain pulsed through my skull. My mouth automatically opened to scream, but Deva path muffled my agonizing cried with his free hand. After a while, the seal was complete and I dropped onto the floor, struggling to move.

"What did you do to me? If you didn't want me to interrupt... then why aren't you trying to kill me?" I asked between ragged breaths.

"You are one of my most valuable member in the organization." Deva path answered as he made his way to the window.

"But I left." I angrily responded, causing the six paths to stop and look at me.

"You are still a valuable asset and it will be a waste to get rid of you now." They stated all at once.

One of the paths opened the window and jumped out with the others following behind, one by one. Before Deva path left, I quickly grabbed his sleeve.

He stopped to meet my glare with an expressionless look. "Tell me. What did you do to me?"

"... Now I can do more than communicate with you in your mind." He answered and before I knew it he was already gone.

I limped over to my bathroom mirror to find a concentric circle marked on my forehead. The circle slowly faded, until there wasn't anything left to see.

'_Hey Shugoo Ryuu, you okay?'_

_'**... Yeah, but... We're too late.'**_

_'I'm sorry... I wonder what he can do with me now.'_

* * *

Later that day

Yamato picked me up from my house to help Naruto's training session with Kakashi. Luckily, my body had fully recovered in a several minutes. When we got to the training grounds we found Naruto and Kakashi talking in the field.

"Huh, really? I have more chakra than you?" Naruto asked

"You have at least twice as much." Kakashi stated. A bright grin spread across Naruto's face.

"For real? I'm awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, full of enthusiasm.

"And if Yamato keeps the nine-tails in check, it could be a hundred times more." Kakashi added.

Just then, Yamato spoke as we approached them. "That's why your the only one who can handle this training, Naruto."

Naruto glanced over to our direction as another goofy grin showed up on his face.

"Hikaru! Yamato-taichou!"

We returned the smile and stood by beside Naruto and Kakashi as Yamato continued to speak.

"Kakashi-San asked me to help you out in training. You'll need me to help control the nine tails' chakra." Yamato explained then turned his attention on me. "And he asked for Hikaru to help out too. She'll help control the nine tails' chakra only if it gets out of hand."

Naruto glanced at Kakashi for a moment with a grateful smile before turning back to us.

"Thanks a bunch!"

"Let's get started with the chakra nature manipulation training." Kakashi stated as he started to explain to Naruto about the five basic types of elements. Meanwhile, I was in my own little world, thinking back on the event with Pein.

All of a sudden, the earth beneath me shot up to the sky. I slightly stumbled, but quickly steadied myself as Yamato preformed another jutsu.

"Cascading torrent!"

A enormous wave of water rose up from our feet and rushed down the earth cliff.

"It's a waterfall!" Naruto exclaimed, staring at the waterfall in awe.

Yamato and I jumped to the side, out of the gushing water as Yamato called back to Naruto.

"My chakra has an affinity of Earth and water based jutsu's." Yamato paused for a moment as he examined Naruto's expression. "You look impressed, Naruto."

"Damn! So, Yamato-taichou can also manage two elements." Naruto stated as he gazed up to Yamato. He then turned his attention towards me and he shouted, "How about you Hikaru? How many can you use?"

"Why don't you show him as well?" Yamato whispered in my ear. I thought for a second about all of the jutsus I could use and realized how dangerous they were.

"I think it's best if I don't. You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt." I responded Yamato before turning to Naruto. "I will show you some other time."

Naruto slumped his shoulders in disappointment as Yamato and Kakashi continued explaining the different elemental jutsus. Soon Naruto snapped out of his dissapointment and began to ask about how some of Shikamaru, Chouji, and my jutsus work. As well as medical ninjutsu and genjutsu. Kakashi and Yamato said that they would tell him later, since he needs to start training now. Kakashi told Naruto to summon as many shadow clones as the tree behind him and before I knew it the tree was empty and all of Naruto's clones were focusing on cutting the leaves in half.

* * *

Several hours later

In mind

I stood in the room filled with candles, softly panting. The sage of six paths was standing in front of me, softly nodding in approval. I decided to train with the sage, while Naruto was doing his training. It was better than sitting there doing nothing.

"Good job Hikaru. You finally mastered Yin and Yang techniques." Sage stated, I happily peered up at the sage. The corners of my lips slightly curled up with the Sage.

"Thank you Grandpa-sage." I deeply bowed to the sage.

"Now, why don't we work on the Yin-yang technique some more?" He suggested.

Sage tapped his chin, thinking about which technique he would teach me next. Suddenly he dug his hand into his cloak. I watched him pull out a scroll with two pictures of monochrome statues on it. He handed the scroll over and I immediatly opened the scroll.

"Twin gods?" I thought out loud, memorizing the hand seals.

_"Hikaru! I need you now!" Shugo Ryuu's panicked voice echoed through out the room._

I automatically looked up to the sage and he nodded. Soon the scenery around me changed to an underground cave. A single stone platform floated in the center of the room, fluffy white clouds covered the ground, and in front of me was a fiery cage that lit the room.

"What's wrong?" I asked, staring at the large red and gold eyes on the other side of the cage.

**_"It's Isobu, the third tails."_**

My hand reached up to touch my forehead without me noticing. "Can you get rid of this seal, like Orochimaru's seal?"

Shugo Ryuu kept silent as his scaly claw peeked out in between one of the flaming bars, his golden nail inched closer to my forehead. I anxiously waited for Shugo Ryuu to get rid of the seal when my body suddenly shot back several feet and I heard a loud thump where Shugo Ryuu was.

"A-are you okay?" I struggled to say, my body tightened so much I could not breathe. Meanwhile, the same pain that I felt when Pein placed the seal on me coursed through my body.

Bloodcurdling screams erupted from Shugo Ryuu and my mouth. We were both unable to do a thing, but just lie on the ground and scream. It felt like we were screaming for hours when the pain finally lessened to the point that we were not screaming anymore.

'_What just happened.'_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Naruto was sleeping on the ground beside me, while Kakashi and Yamato were sitting off to the side discussing about something. It has been several minutes since I woke up by Yamato frantically shaking me and it seems that once Naruto had succeeded his first part of training, I began to scream. From time to time, I could see Kakashi and Yamato glancing back at me for a moment before returning to their conversation.

'_I wonder what they are talking about...'_

"Ugh..."

I gazed down at Naruto to see his blue eyes slowly open.

"You're up." I stated with a soft smile. Naruto turned his head to look at me for a moment when his eyes suddenly grew wide. All of a sudden he instantly sat up and grabbed my shoulders.

"Hikaru, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Naruto bombarded me with questions.

I was speechless for a moment as I stared at Naruto's worried expression. A warmer smile replaced my last one as I gently placed my hands on his arms.

"Don't worry. I'm fine."

Naruto immediately sighed in relief as he dropped his hands off my shoulders, but his eyes never left my face. I awkwardly smiled and combed my hair at the back of my head, suddenly feeling self-conscious about my appearance.

"Oh! I remember now!" Naruto announced out of the blue and began digging though his pouch. I tilted my head in confusion when Naruto froze. His eyes were focused on something and his hands were still in the bag.

"Um... Naruto?" I murmured. Naruto snapped out of his daze and handed over a white forehead protector. "Wow... You still have this?"

"Tsunade-obachan told me that you wanted me to keep it until we see each other again. I also changed the color because the cloth was stained and getting short." Naruto explained.

I stared at the forehead protector in awe. I never thought that I would be seeing my headband again.

"Thank you! I love it!" I beamed as as I tied the forehead protected on my head like Naruto's. The white cloth was as long as Naruto's forehead protector, a lot longer than my last one.

"You're welcome." Naruto smiled back. There was a hint of red on his cheeks, but I wasn't too sure if I was seeing things or not. He then looked back at his bag and pulled out small wooden doll. "Here. I was going to give it back before, but I forgot."

'_This is... The doll Sasori-sempai made.' _

I took the doll out of Naruto's hand when I noticed something. The doll changed. The doll still had the same clothes on, but now there was the seal on it's forehead like me.

'_Does the same thing happen to the doll? There's only one way to find out.'_

With that thought, I pinched my right thumb, so it would bleed. Soon enough there was a red mark on the doll's right thumb.

"Hikaru?" Naruto's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I quickly looked up at him and smiled.

"Hey Naruto... Why don't you take this?" I suggested as I handed the doll back to him.

Naruto sent me a confused and questioning look when Kakashi and Yamato came up to us. Naruto quickly stuffed the doll into his pouch before anyone else could see.

"You're up. After resting for a bit we'll get ready for the next step." Kakashi stated.

"What will I do next?" Naruto excitedly asked.

Kakashi pointed at the waterfall, "This time you'll sever the waterfall."

"The waterfall!?" Naruto repeated.

"Hikaru, why don't you show Naruto an example?" Kakashi suggested. I happily nodded as I removed my headband and jacket before jumping onto the wooden bridge Yamato made.

'_Here I go...' _I focused on my wind affinity chakra on my hands and pressed them on the pouring water. Instantly the waterfall was cut in half.

"Okay, you can come back down." Kakashi called. I withdrew my hands from the waterfall, letting it return to normal before going back to Naruto's side.

"That's so cool! I didn't know that you can use wind too! Now it's my turn!" Naruto enthusiastically exclaimed as he went onto the wooden bridge.

I softly laughed at Naruto's excitement as I put my jacket and forehead protector on.

'_Same old Naruto.'_

Just then I heard a bird call above me. I glanced up to the noise and saw a bird circling above me. As I was about to tell the two adults that I had to leave I felt Kakashi's hand on my shoulder.

"Go on. We'll take care of Naruto." He explained. I lightly nodded and in a flash I transported myself to the Hokage tower.

* * *

The top of the Hokage tower

"Hikaru, right on time." Tsunade stated once I arrived. "I need you to assist on a mission."

"What is it?" I asked.

"I need you to find two Askatsuki members who attacked the Konoha temple. We need to find out their objective." Tsunade explained

_'Konoha temple? Why would they attack there?'_

"Um... Are there any jinchuuriki or anyone with a high bounty?" I continued to ask when the monk standing beside Tsunade answered.

"Yes, there is a person... Chiriku-sama and he was taken down by those fiends and he is died now..." The monk sadly responded.

Once hearing the given information I let out a quiet sigh. "I think I know where they are..."

"Good! If you cannot get their objective, obliterate them." Tsunade ordered. "Now go and don't forget about your uniform."

I nodded before dashing back to my apartment. I already knew what their objective was with Chiriku, but either way, I still want to get rid of them before they capture anymore jinchuuriki.

* * *

Outside of the public bathroom/ bounty station

I found Hidan sitting on the steps, sniffing his sleeve. Meanwhile, I was on the roof of the building behind him.

"Urgh! I spent all of five minutes in that shithole and now my clothes still reek." Hidan grumbled.

I scanned the area to make sure if there wasn't anyone defenseless nearby when my eye caught sight of Shikamaru, Asuma, Izumo, and Kotetsu approaching, meaning that I still have time to confront Hidan. I left my hiding spot and reappeared in front of him. Hidan glanced up at me with annoyance before a hint of excitement filled his eyes.

"Oh! It's been awhile two-face devil. Now we can finally finish our match without any interruptions." Hidan sneered as he slowly got up to his feet, coming closer to me in one step at a time.

"... Good." I responded as I withdrew my sword. "Let's get started."

Almost immediately Hidan swung his triple-bladed scythe at me, but I swiftly blocked every single one of his attacks. We were both evenly match. Neither one of us could land an attack on the other and just have our weapons clash together. During this time I really wish that I could read minds, so I could find out who was their next target.

Just then I noticed Hidan's scythe getting dangerously close to my neck and I was doing my best to push away the weapon with my sword, but the more time I spent on pushing the weapon away, the weaker I grew. Taking a quick glance at Hidan's appearance I could tell that he was anxious and too focused on his weapon to notice anything else.

_'Now's my chance!'_

I molded the ground between us and made it shoot up, crashing into Hidan's jaw. He stumbled back a bit, but regained his composure. Once he steadied himself I swung my sword at him again. He barely blocked the attack, but he was still knocked back to the ground.

"Why you little-" Hidan stopped when he heard several foot steps behind him. He instantly turned around and said, "Finally. Took you long en-"

To his surprise, he found Asuma throwing several shurikens at him instead. Hidan swiftly deflected all of the shurikens before hurling the upper part of his scythe towards Asuma. At the same time, Izumo and Kotetsu appeared and stabbed Hidan on both sides, while Shikamaru was holding him still with his shadow technique.

"One down." Asuma stated with a proud smirk.

"That's not going to work." I muttered, earning confused looks from Izumo and Kotetsu.

Just then, Hidan proved my point.

"That hurt, Dammit. What's your problem?" Hidan nonchalantly asked.

Asuma's team was immediately shocked by the news, while Izumo and Kotetsu began to question themselves.

"What the... Didn't we hit his vital points?" Kotetsu asked

"Don't grind them in so hard, it hurts!" Hidan complained

"I told you before. That's not going to work on him." I stated emotionlessly.

Both Izumo and Kotetsu looked over to me when Izumo asked, "So, he's invulnerable?"

"Now you get it and... Who are you guys? You just interrupted our fight." Hidan grumbled and turned his attention on Asuma. "Haa, really now... This stinks, you mean I need to go back into that shithole of a bounty station..."

Asuma shot Hidan a dark look as he responded, "We are Shinobi from Konoha. We came to stop and wipe out you Akatsuki bastards. You Akatsuki move in two-men teams, but we planned to handle one of you first, then deal with the other. But you obviously possess great skills."

_'That reminds me... Where is Kakuzu?'_

I scanned the area and noticed a slight movement behind Shikamaru. Without catching any unwanted attention, I replaced myself with an earth clone, while I quietly made my way over to Shikamaru.

"Looks like you went after the wrong guy." Hidan stated with a smirk.

'_Almost there...'_

"Where's the other guy?" Asuma questioned.

Just then Kakuzu revealed himself from his hiding position and aimed his fist at Shikamaru.

'_Crap!'_

I immeadiatly bolted towards Shikamaru and Kakuzu and shoved Shikamaru out of the way just in time. However, I was not able to protect myself. Kakuzu's fist collided with my chest and through a side of the roof. Once the three of us landed on the ground Shikamaru was instantly protected by his teammates, while Kakuzu held me by the neck.

"... You're here too huh... Surprisingly money came looking for you, Hidan." Kakuzu nonchalantly stated.

"Kakuzu, don't interfere. These guys will be my ceremonial offerings. You handle the kid and the money. With her, we won't have to go catching more bounties for years." Hidan sneered.

'_Offering! I need to warn them!'_

"You guys! Don't let him cut-" I was cut off by Kakuzu tightening his grip on my throat.

"Did you forget what our leader said about her? Other than that, its fine... Just don't let your guard down or you'll die." Kakuzu replied

"Yeah. Yeah... Then..." Hidan responded with annoyance in his tone as he drew a marking on the ground. "Why are you telling me that? If they can kill me, I want them to kill me. Hmm, impossible isn't it!"

My vision began to fade and my chest ached due to the lack of oxygen entering my lungs. From time to time, my sight would return and blur again. Before I knew it I caught a glimpse of Hidan and Asuma fighting.

'_I hope Asuma didn't let Hidan cut him yet.'_

"It hurts, eh? Doesn't it... You've been judged,eh?" I heard Hidan say._  
_

'_... Too late...'_

As more time passed by, my consciousness started to leave. There was only one technique I could think of, but it was a technique that I had not mastered yet, twin gods. My forced my hands to make the correct hand signs and concentrated on the scrolls instructions. A blast of monochrome colored chakra spread throughout the open area, taking out Kakuzu who was actually a water clone.

I slowly got up to my feet and found two colossal figures standing beside me. Before I could figure out what this jutsu could do, I noticed Hidan's spear flying towards me. Instinctively, I attempted to catch the spear with my hands, only to find that I could not move my body.

'_Crap! I need to dodge it or defelect it or something!'_

My eyes sealed shut as I waited for the spear to pierce my skull, but after a moment of waiting I still felt nothing.

"That hurt, dammit!" Hidan yelled.

Once hearing Hidan's voice, I cautiously opened my eyes to find the spear inches away from my face. My eyes trailed along the spear to see an gigantic hand holding the spear. Looking over to the other figure, I found that it's arm was outstretched towards Hidan and similar looking spears covered every square inch of his body.

"What the hell..." I heard Asuma and the others gasp.

I inwardly sighed when I heard Asuma's voice before focusing on Hidan again. Wanting to walk forward, I suddenly found myself floating in between the two figures as we approached Hidan.

"Kakuzu, hurry up and help me!" Hidan frantically screamed to his partner.

"... Just this time." Kakuzu grumbled and before I knew it, Kakuzu's hands were flying at me.

The left figure instantly raised its hand up and shot a white chakra ball at him. Kakuzu barely dodged the attack in time, letting the ball blow up half of the building. Kakuzu made a second attempt to attack, but this time distracted me with several water clones. I did my best to control the two figures, swinging, blocking, and throwing the clones around as well as trying not to hurt Shikamaru's team. At last, when it seemed that I had defeated Kakuzu and his clones I stabbed Hidan with his own spear, forcing him to stay in the exact same position.

_'Am I done?' _

I glanced around the area, making sure that everyone was alright when my eyes caught sight of something. Hidan's curse circle.

_'I better destroy that, just in case...'_

With that thought, I slowly made my way over to the circle.

"Look out!" Shikamaru shouted, but it was already too late. A fist punched me straight in the jaw, sending me back several feet. I slightly staggered back to my feet as I glared up at my attacker.

"We're not done yet." Kakuzu calmly stated, while he sent another punch at my face.

The mask helped lessen the pain, but I feel the mask slowly cracking.

"Go help her!" Asuma ordered. Izumo and Kotestsu ran over to our direction, while Asuma and Shikamaru faced Hidan, who was slowly breaking free.

I commanded the two figures to crush Kakuzu, while he delivered on last blow to my face. Luckily, I was able hit Kakuzu before I flew back again, but unfortunately the bottom of my mask shattered into pieces, revealing my mouth.

'_My chakra... Is running out... I better hurry up and destroy the circle.'_

While Kakuzu was distracted by the two leaf ninjas, I rushed over to the circle as fast as I could. Hidan seemed to have noticed my plan when he started to make his okay over to me.

I sent one of the figures to crushed the ground, while Hidan was only a several feet away from the circle. I would have used another chakra ball to destroy the ground, but Asuma and Shikamaru were too close.

The figure swung its fist downwards and in 3... 2... 1... The ground should have been destroyed.

'..._What?'_

The two figures suddenly disappeared in thin air and I found myself face to face with Hidan.

"W-What the hell?" Hidan stammered with shock and slight confusion.

As I took in a breath of air, a sharp pain flashed through my heart. At the same time, blood began to gush out of my mouth. Hidan's shock vanished almost instantly after seeing my condition.

"Ha Ha I really thought that I was doomed for a second there, but it seems like you're the one who is doomed." Hidan gleefully stated before dodging Asuma's attack.

I was on my hands and knees, while I listened to Hidan and Asuma fighting. By the sounds of it, Hidan was trying to use his curse on Asuma again. I forced myself to crawl over to Hidan, hoping that there might be a chance that I could distract him or something. I was less that a feet away from him when I heard him say something that Shikamaru's team or I wanted to hear.

"It's time that you felt the ultimate pain... Death."

"Stop!" Shikamaru yelled as he dashed towards Hidan.

Without thinking, my entire body reacted to Shikamaru's voice. I was standing on my feet in no time and my arms wrapped around Hidan's torso as I attempted to drag him out of the circle. However, in a few seconds I felt something pierce through my chest along with flash of hot pain.

'_Asuma!'_

I peered over Hidan's shoulder, blinking several times to keep me from entering the darkness. Once I regained focus, just for a short moment, I found Asuma fall face flat on the ground._  
_

_'I'm... I'm too late...'_


	10. Chapter 10

For those who like Shikamaruxoc pairings there is a scene in here for you guys.

* * *

Chapter 10

(3rd person perspective)

**Flashback**

Choji, Ino, and other backup ninjas came to help out right after Asuma dropped to the ground, lifeless. Meanwhile, Hidan was casually carried the unconscious ANBU girl on his shoulder.

"Choji! Take Asuma-sensei to the Konoha hospital immediately! Ino go with him and use medical ninjutsu to recover him even a little! Hurry!" Shikamaru ordered.

Just as Choji and Ino were about to leave with Asuma, Kakuzu jumped in.

"I'm not giving you my bounty." He stated in an angered tone.

"Damn..." Shikamaru muttered

"We'll hold him off. Take the opening and transport Asuma-san!" The ninja with glasses ordered.

"No matter how you flop, you're all sacrifices to be made to the go-" Hidan was cut off when a hand clamped around his neck.

"Huh?" Some of the leaf ninja murmured as everyone turned their attention to the hand on Hidan's neck, while Hidan frantically tried to rip the hand off.

"Leave them..." A cold voice muttered. The girl on Hidan's shoulder slowly raised her head. "Leave them alone."

"That's enough kid." Kakuzu stated as he placed his hand on the girl's upper arm, but he instantly pulled his hand away.

Shikamaru examined Kakuzu and the girl in suspicion when noticed that Kakuzu's hand flesh was dripping on the ground like wax. As quick as he could, Hidan attempted to throw the girl off his shoulder and over the edge. However, the girl merely flashed behind the two Akatsuki members, staring at the two behind her broken mask. A hole began to burn through the chest of black high neck sleeveless shirt, revealing a glowing red marking on her chest.

The two Akatsuki members spun around to face the girl when the three of them froze for a second.

"Can't you wait a little longer... It's just getting good, really." Hidan begged, then after a short second he slapped his forehead. "That's why I'm saying... Just wait a bit longer!"

"Hidan, stop." Kakuzu ordered

"So, you have both Nibi and Sanbi?" The girl abruptly asked and after a short pause she clicked her tounge, earning a confused look from all of the leaf ninjas.

Hidan met eye contact with the girl and there was a barely visible sight of fear enter his eyes. The two Akatsuki members vanished after warning everyone that they would be back. After the two had left, the leaf ninjas were staring at the ANBU girl. The marking on her chest began to fade as she spoke.

"You guys need to bring Asuma to the hospital." She stated. The coldness in her tone was replaced with a warm, yet worried one.

Shikamaru's gaze glued onto the girl when he voice made him remember a memory of an old friend.

'_Hikaru?... No, it can't be she's already... She's already dead.'_

**End Flashback**

* * *

The day of Asuma's funeral

(Hikaru's point of view)

I was dressed in my black funeral dress, doing my best to use my necklace to cover the seal on my chest. On my way to Asuma's funeral I noticed a thin trail of smoke coming from the field of grass. Out of curiosity I quietly approached the smoke to find Shikamaru lying on the grass with a cigaret clamped between his lips.

'_He's not going to Asuma's funeral?' _

I decided to push the question aside as I wore a reassuring smile on my face.

"Mind if I join you?" I asked and Shikamaru twitched to the sound of my voice.

He cautiously turned back to look at me and his eyes grew wide. "Hikaru?"

My smile grew softer as I lay down beside him. He kept his eyes on me for a little longer before returning to his original position.

"... How are you doing?" I struggled to ask. I always did have trouble comforting people.

"...I'm fine..." Shikamaru answered.

We both fell into an awkward silence as we watched the clouds leisurely drift by in the sky. From time to time I would steal quick glimpses of Shikamaru's solemn face. At last I could not take the silence anymore.

"I'm sorry Shikamaru. I couldn't help save Asuma." I sadly whispered as I sat up, staring at my lap.

I could hear Shikamaru sitting up beside me when he spoke, "What for? He's my teacher and team captain. It's my fault that I couldn't save him... Besides you did all you could too."

I turned my head to the right to meet Shikamaru's gaze. "What do you mean?"

He softly sighed as his fingers reached up to my chest to move my necklace.

"You're that ANBU member who was tried to warn us and help defeat those two Akatsuki guys, right?" Shikamaru stated.

Before I could answer I felt myself being pulled forward into Shikamaru's arm.

"S-Shikamaru?" I nervously whispered

"I thought you were dead." He murmured into my ear as his embrace tightened around me. "Why didn't you tell me that you were still alive?"

My slowly fluttered shut as my hands made their way to his back.

"I'm sorry Shikamaru."

We were in each other's arms for what seems like eternity. At last when we heard the soft sounds of footsteps approaching we separated from each other. Before whoever was approaching arrived we both walked back to his house, since I wanted to say 'hi' to his parents.

On our way to his house there was one question that had been buzzing around in my mind.

_'How did he find out about my 'dead?''_

"Hey Shikamaru?" I began. Shikamaru hummed in response, so I assumed that I could continue. "Why did you think that I was dead?"

I noticed Shikamaru's form become slightly ridged when he heard my question, but he responded without hesitation.

"It was about a few days after you left and I went to the Hokage's office to turn in our report for Asuma." Shikamaru explained as he looked out in the distant. A frown appeared on his lips. "When I got there I found the Hokage sitting at her desk, drunk. She held a sake bottle in one hand and her other hand she held a piece of paper."

* * *

**Flashback**

Hokage's office

(3rd person perspective)

Just like Shikamaru explained, Tsunade was sitting at her desk. Her cheeks were flush and she reeked of alcohol. On her desk was an open folder with a thin stack of papers in it, but Tsunade paid no attention to the folder. Instead she kept looking at the paper in her hand as she chugged down the bottles of sake on after another.

"Fifth Hokage I brought my team's report." Shikamaru announced as he approached the desk.

"Ah Shikamaru~" Tsunade gleefully exclaimed before taking another chug of her sake. "Do you know what day it is today?"

"No." Shikamaru answered indifferently as he placed the report on the desk.

"It's Kurokami Hikaru's execution."

Shikamaru immediately froze to the Hokage's statement, while she continued to speak.

"Those jerks from the hidden night village came here saying that they to execute he for something she did when she was four years old. If I said no, they were going to declare war on us." Tsunade threw away her empty bottle to the large pile on the floor and reached out for another. "I said 'no' of course and told them to leave, but that was when Hikaru came in and offered herself to them."

"Then why didn't you stop her?" Shikamaru angrily questioned.

"I did, but she said something about she is not worth going to war for and she asked me to keep a secret for her. Do you want to hear it?" Tsunade leaned closer to Shikamaru as her words began to slur. "She said don't tell anyone. Only tell them when Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, and some other people finish their training and such."

Tsunade suddenly dropped her head down onto the table with a slam, placing the paper in her hand on top of the folder contents.

"I should have stopped that stupid girl." She muttered before passing out.

Shikamaru quietly scanned the paper that was in Tsunade's hand to find that it was Hikaru's personal information. On top of her picture and other information there was a red stamp print on it saying 'deceased.'

"Please don't tell anyone." A gentle voice spoke up from behind Shikamaru. He spun around to see Shizune standing by the door with a sorrowful expression.

"Tsunade-sama had been drinking like this ever since Hikaru left and I had never seen her drink so much in her life." Shizune stated as she strolled over to Tsunade's side, draping a blanket over her shoulders. "She must really regret letting her go. Tsunade-sama did favor her after all."

**End Flashback**

* * *

At Shikamaru's house

(Hikaru's point of view)

"I see... So, that's what happened. I'm sorry." I mumured as I moved one of the Shoji pieces. "You're turn.

Shikamaru was telling me his story when we arrived to his house and before we knew it we were playing Shoji together. Night had already fallen upon us and we were not even close to finishing the game.

"You've gotten a lot better." Shikamaru stated, keeping his eyes on the board. His hand softly touched the king piece and I noticed that he seemed like he was deep in thought.

"... Hey Shikamaru..." I whispered. Shikamaru snapped out of his daze and looked up at me. My gaze shifted over to the pair of chakra blades beside him. "I can teach you how to use those. If you need help that is."

I glanced back up at Shikamaru as I continued. "Also I can give you information about those two Akatsuki members."

Shikamaru's eyes instantly lit up to my offer. A small smile showed up on his face and he returned to the game.

"Thanks."

The two of us continued our game, not noticing that Shikamaru's father had been watching us.

After that day Shikamaru and I had been spending every day together studying in the library, training with the chakra blades at his house, or discussing plans about how to defeat Hidan and Kazuku. At last we finally decided on one plan that we thought was the best.

* * *

The day of team 10's departure

I found Tsunade talking to Shikamaru and his team at the front gate. From the sounds of it, Tsunade did not want them going to fight Hidan and Kakuzu. I quietly approached them when I heard Tsunade's excuse of not letting them go. After listening to their discussion I made up my mind.

"Be realistic... There's only three of yo-" Tsunade began when I inturrupted.

"If it's a fourth person you need to be captain, I will do it."

Everyone turned to my direction, looking at me with surprise. Well... Everyone except for Shikamaru.

"Hikaru." Tsunade and Chouji gasped.

"I can act as team 10's captain for this mission." I stated.

"Eh? Hikaru-chan, you're a jonin?" Ino asked.

I turned to her and smiled, "Yep. For several of years. So, may I go fifth Hokage?"

"Um..." Tsunade mumbled when another voice spoke.

"No, you can't go. I will be their leader instead."

We all turned to see Kakashi walking up to us.

"Kakashi-sensei?" I tilted my head to the side.

"You need to help with Naruto's training." Kakashi stated before whispering something into Tsunade's ear.

Tsunade fell silent for a moment before announcing, "Fine. Go! Hikaru and the rest of team seven will be your back up."

"Thank you." I slightly bowed my head then went up to Shikamaru. I forcefully placed a small bag in his hands and wore a warm smile. "You'll need these."

Shikamaru looked at me with confusion and peeked into the bag. His eyes widened for a quick second before smiling at me.

"Thanks."

"Good luck and also... Be careful." I whispered the last part, but it seems that Shikamaru heard it.

He gently took one of my hands with his free hand and squeezed it. I looked up to meet his gaze.

"Don't worry. I'll be back with everyone. Safe and sound." Shikamaru whispered back.

We stayed in the same position for awhile. Staring into each other's eyes.

"Hey Shikamaru Hikaru. What are you two doing?" Ino asked.

Shikamaru and I looked over to Ino's mischievous smile. We immediately acted as if we were shaking hands and separated.

"Alright team 10. Let's go!" Kakashi announced.

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei!" Ino and Choji happily exclaimed as the four of them departed.

I watched the group walk until I could not see them anymore.

'_All right. Now it's my turn to get ready.'_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

In the forest, team Yamato and I found Ino, Kakashi, and Choji trapped by Kakuzu's jutsu. As we got closer Naruto created wind rasengan, while Yamato summoned water and combinded his technique with Naruto's. The technique freed everyone from Kakuzu's technique as the rest of us stepped in between them.

"Sorry we're late." Naruto muttered

"Whew... Good timing." Kakashi sighed in relief

"Sakura... Sai... Hikaru... Naruto..." Ino breathed out with a relaxed smile.

"Whew. We definitely need some backup." Choji sighed in relief as well.

"Never seen you so beat up, sempai. This guy must be tough." Yamato stated.

"... But you guys did pretty good. Most people wouldn't be able to get two of his hearts." I stated. Ino, Kakashi, and Choji gave me a faint smile in response, while Kakuzu glared at me. However, sweept my statement aside and turned his attention on Naruto.

"Heh heh another comedian..." Kakuzu smirked. "You're already beat up and you want to fight me?"

Naruto ignored his comment and glanced back at Choji.

"Where's Shikamaru?" Naruto asked.

"He's fighting this guy's partner somewhere else." Choji answered

'_I see... Shikamaru you better be okay.'_

"Two of you go back him up. One combat ninja and one medical." Kakashi commanded as he summoned Pakkun.

Yamato ordered Sai and Sakura to aid Shikamaru, while he, Naruto, and I stayed to fight Kakuzu. Sakura wished Naruto and I good luck before following Pakkun with Sai.

Behind us Yamato and Kakashi were whispering about Naruto's progress, we just focused on Kakuzu. Naruto summoned three shadow clones in front of us.

"Mass shadow clone..." Kakuzu muttered. "Ah... You're the nine-tails jinchuuriki that was a part of leader and Hikaru's deal."

Naruto glanced at me with a puzzled look on his face, but I mouthed to him that I would tell him later. Meanwhile, Yamato and Kakashi were talking about Kakuzu's abilities and his five hearts.

"Naruto!" Yamato ordered

Before Yamato could finish Naruto sent his three clones at Kakuzu. In the background, I could hear Ino and Choji panicking. Kakuzu caught two of Naruto's clones instantly, but it took him a moment to catch the third one.

"Are shadow clones all you got? You got to do better than that kid!" Kakuzu taunted once the clones disappeared.

Naruto ignored his comments once again as he began to think of a plan. He then summoned three more clones and began to create his wind spiral shuriken.

'_So that's his plan... It's risky, but it just might work.'_

The clone rushed towards Kakuzu and began to attack him, distracting him from the original Naruto. At last when Kakuzu's hands were full, Naruto aimed his attack towards Kakuzu's chest. During his attack, the wind spiral shuriken began to shrink and vanished into thin air before even touching Kakuzu.

"D-Did he do it?" Ino asked with a bit of hope.

"... Another failure." Yamato gasped.

'_Crap!' _

"Yamato!" Kakashi shouted when he noticed me dashed over to Naruto who was being wrapped up by Kakuzu's black vines.

"Right!" Yamato responded and sent a wooden pilar at Kakuzu.

"Give me you're heart!" Kakuzu yelled as he was about to attack.

"Like I'll let that happen." I muttered as I summoned shadow blade on my left arm.

Just then Yamato's wooden pillar made him duck, creating enough time for me to cut the vines with my shadow blade and run off with Naruto. Yamato continued to attack Kakuzu with wooden pillars until he hit the wall.

"Dammit!" Naruto yelled

"Acting cool and screwing up... That's pretty much the same old Naruto." Ino sighed

"I thought you were gonna blast him into space, isn't missing and running away the opposite thing?" Choji stated

"Shut up! If I'd hit him there'd be nothing left!" Naruto snapped and Kakashi nodded in agreement.

"Even though it's a rasenshuriken, you need to hit the enemy point blank. Hence the shadow clone distraction." Yamato stated

"Still not enough training time. If it'd just lasted a couple more seconds..." Kakashi added

"We'll never get this guy now... Not with his strength." Choji sadly announced

I glanced over to Naruto who seemed like he was deep in thought. I gently placed my hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch. He turned to meet my reassuring smile.

"You can do it." I whispered.

Naruto returned the smile as he got back up on his feet.

"Let me fight him again. I'll get him with my new jutsu. Definitely." He spoke with determination.

"He's from Akatsuki, the same trick won't work twice." Ino stated

"He'll know you're trying to distract him. We need to fight together." Choji added

"That's true. It's five verses one right now... We don't need to take him on one verses one. That'll be a dangerous bridge to cross." Kakashi noted.

"Kakashi-sensei, remember what you told me during our training?" Naruto asked and Kakashi gave him a confused look. "I'm the only shinobi who can surpass the fourth Hokage... That's what you believe. I know teamwork is important. You've taught me that. I've wanna cross that dangerous bridge, if I can't make it to the other side, I'll be a kid forever. So don't burn that bridge just yet."

I quietly sighed to his comment, knowing that he was probably thinking about Sasuke.

_'If he puts it like that then I have to let him do it himself...'_

I glanced up to Kakashi and Yamato to see that they were thinking the exact same thing. The two adults allowed Naruto take another shot at fighting Kakuzu, while the rest of us anxiously watched.

* * *

Once again Naruto sent three shadow clones in front of him while he was at the back, holding his rasenshuriken. Knowing what he was doing, Kakuzu jumped up and attacked the Naruto who was holding the rasenshuriken.

"Like I thought, he seen through it!" Ino shouted

"No, he hasn't." I muttered. Ino, Choji, and the others looked at me in confusion, but I merely smiled at them.

Soon enough, Kakuzu realized that the Naruto he hit was a clone and the original was mixed with the diversion.

"Got ya!" Naruto yelled as he shoved the rasenshuriken through Kakuzu's back. Before I knew it there was an enormous explosion coming from Naruto and Kakuzu.

'_Naruto!'_

Without thinking, I rushed over to find Naruto flying through the air. I attempted to catch Naruto as he got closer to the ground, but in the end I ended up cushioning his fall instead.

"He He alright... I did it..." Naruto wearily stated, not noticing that I was beneath him.

"Good job... You've gotten a lot stronger..." I stated in a strained voice.

Naruto glanced down at me, "Huh? Hikaru!"

We stared at each other with wide eyes, our faces only a few inches away. I did my best to keep the heat from rushing up my face. My gaze automatically casted off to the side to avoid my heart rate from increasing.

"Um..." We started at the same time, but we were both cut off when we heard Ino and Choji calling us.

I gently pushed Naruto off my body, still unable to look at his face. Soon Choji helped hold Naruto in place while Ino began to heal him. As my heart gradually slowed down I saw the crater where Kakuzu was standing.

My legs carried me over to the crater to find Kakuzu lying in the middle of it. I jumped down beside him and he weakly looked up at me.

"If only you were still on our side... We would have caught the nine-tails..." Kakuzu grumbled.

"Well... Sucks for you because I am never going back to Akatsuki." I responded as I crouched down beside him.

Unexpectedly a smirk appeared on Kakuzu's face,"You will one day..."

"Like I'll let that happen. Neither will the rest of us." A voice stated as a screeching sound appeared behind me.

I glanced back to see Kakashi behind me with electricity sparking off his hand. In one swift motion Kakashi stabbed his hand through Kakuzu's remaining heart, ending his life.

"Kakashi-sensei..." I murmured when Kakashi ruffled my hair.

"No one will ever let that happen." Kakashi smiled as he walked away.

_'Thank you.'_

I glanced at Kakuzu's body once more when my sight caught onto his ring on his left middle finger. I quickly slipped the ring off his finger and placed it on mine.

_'Now Akatsuki can't have another member joining.'_

* * *

The next day at Ramen Ichiraku

Naruto, Sai, Sakura, and I were eating ramen at Ramen Ichiraku to celebrate our mission's victory. When Naruto suddenly shouted in pain.

"Dammit, I can't eat with my left hand." Naruto complained.

His right hand was in a cast because of his new jutsu. I inwardly sighed as I remembered what Naruto told me and Sakura in the hospital, about how he felt that we were getting closer to Sasuke. It's funny because the closer Naruto felt to getting to Sasuke, I felt like we were getting farther away. It's probably just me.

I moved my stool closer to Naruto, "Here. Give me your chopsticks."

Surprise was visible on Naruto's face when he looked at me and I swore that I saw a faint blush on his cheeks when he heard my offer.

"Open wiiiide!" Sai called as he held some ramen up to Naruto's face.

Naruto instantly turned his head towards Sai to have him shove the ramen into him mouth.

"Ow! Dammit, that's hot! And where the hell did you come from?" Naruto yelled. Just then Kakashi entered the shop.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked when he entered. Meanwhile, the two boys ignored Kakashi.

"When a friend is in trouble you're suppose to help him out. I read in a book that that's what true friendship is." Sai answered innocently

"Forget books! You need to learn about how to read people's faces! You killed the mood!" Naruto scolded.

'_Mood?'_

"What's up? Things seem pretty lively here." Kakashi stated.

Sakura explained what was happening. After hearing the story, Kakashi told Sakura and I to move over a seat, so he could feed Naruto. In the end, Naruto finished eating with Kakashi's help, but he wore a disappointed look on his face.

"So, you're not resting up in a hospital bed, for once." Sakura teased.

"Shocking, I know. I guess that has become a tradition with me lately. Hasn't it?" Kakashi replied. "Well, this time things ended without me needing to use the Manekyou Sharingan. Although if you hadn't shown up when you did, I would've had to. And be in bed right now. Hehe."

Kakashi noticed that Naruto's cheerfulness had vanished and he turned to him.

"You've come a long way, Naruto. You're at least on equal footing with me... Probably better. But don't ever forget... A powerful jutsu comes with a lot of risk to the user." Kakashi stated.

Naruto sadly gazed out to space as he quietly agreed.

'_**The same goes with you too kid.'**_

Memories of the time I used the twin gods technique flooded my mind.

_'I know... I need more training, but even though I am still going to master it.'_

"Sensei..." Naruto's voice snapped me out of my daze. I looked up to see his goofy grin. "I know how my body works better than anyone else! And trust me, I'm the toughest guy in the universe! And the future Hokage! There's nothing to worry about!"

Sakura and I softly chuckled to his comment with our hands on our foreheads, while Sai and Kakashi smiled.

"All right old man, I'm full! Give the bill to Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto announced as he left the store.

'_I better start training.' _I bid everyone goodbye and vanished in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Training grounds

Several days later

I had been practicing my twin gods jutsu for days, but I only improved slightly. In the end, the outcome was the same. Blood would gush out of my mouth and my heart felt like it was being stabbed.

"One more time..." I muttered as I wiped the blood off my face.

"Kurokami Hikaru." A familiar voice spoke up from behind. I peered up to see a Izumo and Kotetsu smiling down at me.

I returned the smile as I got up to my feet. "What's up?"

"We need you to tell Ibiki-san about Akatsuki." Kotetsu answered. I quickly nodded and began to follow them when a voice entered my head.

'Sorry Hikaru, but I can't let that happen.'

'_P-Pein?!'_

My body automatically began to fall forward, but luckily Izumo quickly caught my body before I hit the ground. I could hear Izumo and Kotetsu calling my name and asking if I was okay. However, I was unable. Slowly my vision and hearing was drowned out by the darkness of unconsciousness.

* * *

I want to do a vote on which pairing people would like to see, so please review.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

In the Hokage's office

(3rd person perspective)

"Uchiha Itachi eh... What about him?" Tsunade asked, sitting on her desk.

"If we can just capture one member of the Akatsuki, we can turn them over to Ibiki-san and let him extract whatever information he can get." Sakura suggested.

"I ordered Izumo and Kotetsu to bring Hikaru over to Ibiki to tell him everything she knows about Akatsuki. Also I did order each squadron to make every effort to make members of Akatsuki alive if they ever encounter any, just in case something happens." Tsunade answered.

"Unfortunetly, they're not easy to talk to. If you look our previous encounters with them, capturing them was either too dangerous or not a option." Kakashi stated as he entered the room. "Also we cannot get anything from Hikaru either..."

Everyone looked at Kakashi in shock when they heard what he said.

"What do you mean about not being able to get any information from Hikaru?" Tsunade questioned.

Kakashi sadly sighed as he approached Tsunade, "When Izumo and Kotetsu were about to bring her to Ibiki she suddenly fell unconcious. Ibiki and the others tried waking her up, but she wouldn't budge. However, they did find something that I think you will recognize Jiraiya-san."

Kakashi pulled out a small photo from his pocket and handed it to Jiraiya.

"This..." Jiraiya trailed off, unable to look away from the photo.

Confused about why Jiraiya hadn't said anything about the photo, Tsunade peered over Jiraiya's shoulder to look at the photo as well. She slumped down onto her seat, deep in thought.

"What's wrong with Hikaru?" Naruto asked, his tone filled with worry.

Jiraiya finally tore his attention away from the photo to look at his concerned student.

"She has a seal on her. I don't know what the seal would do to her, but lets just hope that it only knocks her out." Jiraiya answered as he stuffed the photo in his pouch.

"Then what're we suppose to do?!" Naruto angrily asked.

"The one thing we can do is do our best to find Itachi, right?" Kakashi casually responded.

"So you want to hunt down Itachi in order to find Sasuke. Lets say you actually find him. What're you going to do then?" Jiraiya questioned.

Both Naruto and Sakura where speechless, until Kakahi stated that they needed more than one teams on the mission. Which he had already assigned team 8 to join. Once everything was settled Tsunade told everyone to get ready to depart the next day, while Jiraiya left to do his own research.

* * *

Several days later

Dreamscape

(Hikaru's point of view)

I found myself sitting in the dark with Shugo Ryuu, unable to do anything to make myself to wake up. It felt like I had been sitting in the dark for years.

While I waited I could not help but worry about how everyone was doing. If Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and everyone are doing okay without me. All I could do was hope that everyone was okay.

"I feel so useless..." I muttered out to no one in particular.

Just then a bright light appeared before me, blinding me for a few seconds. Soon my eyes adjusted to the light to find myself looking down at an old looking Jiraiya and I noticed that the six paths of Pein were encircling me.

"Jiraiya-sensei..." I breathed out, catching his attention.

"That seal... Those eyes... It's the same as..." Jiraiya began when one of the six paths cut him off.

"I see that you're finally awake, Hikaru."

"What on Earth is going on?! How did I get here?!" I demanded angrily.

"You don't look like Hikaru and you... are you Nagato or Yahiko?" Jiraiya asked then raised his voice. "Who are you? Tell me!"

"We are Pain..." One of the six paths answered before all of them lunged towards Jiraiya. "We are god!"

"Run Jiraiya-sensei!" I shouted as I made a step forward to follow, but I found out that my arms and legs were trapped by the earth wrapped around them.

Everything happened so fast that I could barely keep up with Pein and Jiraiya's movements. Before I knew it, I saw Jiraiya lying face flat on the ground. His throat was crushed and spears stabbed in his back.

_'No...'_

Millions of bolts of lightning shot off my body from rage, turning the earth encasing my limbs into dust. I bolted to Jiraiya's side wanting to help him, but it was already too late. No matter how badly I tried to heal him, his injuries were too fatal to heal.

"Sensei... I'm sorry..." I sadly murmured as I hung my head in sorrow, tears running down my cheeks.

I suddenly felt a cold hand on mine. Slightly looking up I saw Jiraiya softly smiling at me, ignoring his pain. More tears poured out of my eyes and bluring my vision even more at the sight of Naruto and my teacher dying in front of me. Jiraiya slowly removed his hand off mine and began writing a code on Fukasaku's back.

The six paths noticed what Jiraiya was doing when he just finished writing his message. One of the six paths shot his fist towards us, wanting to kill Fukasaku. Luckily he escaped just in time. Meanwhile, his fist crushed the ground instead, sending Jiraiya and I sinking into the water. I reached out to grab Jiraiya when my vision began to fade out own me again.

'_No not now! Please!'_

Another scene appeared before my eyes of Tobi or now calling himself Madara telling Sasuke everything about how Itachi was a double agent and he was ordered to kill everyone in the Uchiha clan. However, Itachi's mission was a failure because he couldn't kill his own brother. In the end, everything that Itachi did was for Sasuke._  
_

_'... This is going to have a huge effect on Sasuke... I just hope it's a good effect.'_

As I sat there watching to two Uchihas sitting in the room in silence, I noticed Madara turn his head towards my direction. My body immediately tensed up when Madara approached. He knelt in front of me, locking his Sharingan eye with my Rinnegan eyes when he unexpectedly poked my forehead.

"What did you think about Konoha now, Hi-ka-ru?"

I was speechless. All of my thoughts and worries were whipped out of my mind almost instantly. A light chuckle could be heard behind his mask as swept his thumb on my cheek bone.

"Join me... With you. Our mission will be a lot easier to succeed."

"...I..." I whispered when another voice popped up in my head.

_**"Don't do it kid. You regret destroying your home village and the other village that tried to kill you. Do you want to worsen it?"**_

_**'**I...' I thought when a faint voice echoed though my head. 'Naruto?'_

* * *

In the Hospital

My heavy eyes slowly opened, expecting to see the ceiling but instead I only saw a pale green color.

'_W-Was all of that a dream?'_

I made a slight movement of one my arm, wanting to rub my eyes to find that I could not move it.

'_What the heck?!'_

With all my might I to get up or at least turn around, but my efforts were futile. Something was wrapped around my upper torso, holding me in place. At first I thought it was some sort of trap to hold me down, until I felt it tighten around me and I heard a soft snoring sound close to my ear. Cautiously, I gazed up to see who it was and to my surprise I found Naruto's sleeping face above me._  
_

"N-Naruto?!" I stated out in surprise.

This was not the first time Naruto had held onto me, while we were asleep. In fact we did this many time when we were kids. However, this time was different. I found myself not being able to take my eyes off his face. He has grown to be quite handsome over the years, yet I didn't understand why he hasn't gotten together with anyone.

It was obvious that Hinata was in love with him. Anyone could tell just by looking, but of course Naruto was oblivious to it. Strangely, I felt a dull pain in my chest when I imagined Naruto and Hinata dating.

'_I wonder why...'_

I subconsciously moved my free hand up to my childhood friend's cheek, using my thumb to trace each of his whisker lines. Unexpectedly, I heard Naruto groan. I quickly pulled my hand away and waited in silence. After a moment, I decided to wake him up.

"Naruto... Naruto, wake up." I said as I gently tapped his shoulder

"Ngh... Hikaru?" Naruto muttered in a hoarse tone, his bright blue eyes slowly opened.

"G-good morning." I quietly greeted, trying to ignore the heat rushing up to my face and my heart beating faster and faster by the minute.

"You're finally awake." Naruto smiled at me, but his smile did not meet his eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Naruto looked at me with slight surprise before looking off to the side.

"... Sasuke killed Itachi" He answered dismally.

'_What?!' _

Naruto's words replayed in my head as I remembered my "dream" about Sasuke and Madara.

_'I thought that was a dream... Please don't tell me that Jiraiya-sensei is...'_

"Karu...Hikaru!"

I snapped out of my daze and found Naruto's face a few inches in front of me, while his hands were cupping my face.

"Wh-what?" I stuttered

"You were zoning out on me and your face is pale... Are you feeling okay?" Naruto asked, concern was obvious in his tone and expression.

"Yeah... I'm-"

Just then there was a knocking sound coming from the window behind me. Naruto raised his head up to see who it was, his hand still cupping my face.

"What...? Kakashi-sensei?"

"The fifth wants to see you two. Get ready immediately." Kakashi solemnly responded.

My heart instantly dropped to his demands and fear took over my body.

'_Please don't tell me that...'_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Little Jiraiya died in battle." Fukasaku stated.

Right now Naruto and I stared at the small frog in disbelief. His words racked in our heads as we slowly digest them.

'_So that wasn't a dream...'_

"Huh... Wh-What're you talking about?" Naruto asked, his voice began to shake.

"His throat was crushed in battle with Pein, little Jiraiya left me a message as he fell." Fukasaku tore off his cloak as he turned around to show the code written on his back. "This is it."

"A code..." Shizune murmured out.

"No doubt he did it so Pein wouldn't realize it... This is all that is left of him." Fukasaku added.

Both Naruto and I glared at the floor beneath our feet as we absorbed the news.

"... Did you... Send him?" Naruto finally spoke.

"I did." Tsunade bluntly answered, but it was obvious that she is devastated about Jiraiya's death.

"Why did you let him go!? How could you send him into danger all alone? You know how he is!" Naruto yelled out in anger.

"Stop it, Naruto! You must know how she feels." Kakashi scolded.

Naruto stared at Kakashi then at Tsunade before heading towards the door.

"Naruto! Where are you going?!" Sakura called

"If pervy sage had been made fifth Hokage... Then Tsunade-obachan wouldn't have forced him to do this... I know it..." Naruto muttered as he left the room.

Sakura called out for Naruto again, but Tsunade told her to leave him alone for a while. Shortly after Naruto left, Kakashi and Fukasaku started to talk about Jiraiya and Naruto. During their discussion I turned to leave the room as well, but I was stopped by Fukasaku.

"Where are you going, Hikaru-chan?"

I glanced back at Fukasaku expressionlessly as I quietly responded, "I have something to take care of..."

"There is no point on trying to avenge Jiraiya if you don't know if you can defeat him or not." Fukasaku stated and I froze. "You saw the fight, so you should know how strong he is."

_'How did he know?'_

Once again I glanced back to see Fukasaku's serious expression, giving him one of my fake smiles.

"You caught me." I laughed and rubbed the back of my head. Then I grew serious like Fukasaku. "Then I will just have train... I have a bad feeling about what is going to happen next..."

I muttered the last part as I left the room, luckily nobody heard it.

* * *

Few days later

At the front gate

Naruto, Fukasaku, and I stood on the other side of the gate, facing Tsunade, Shikamaru, and Sakura"

"All right, time to go. Are you sure you don't want to come, Hikaru-chan?" Fukasaku asked

"Yeah! Come join us!" Naruto added with a cheerful tone.

It has been a while since I had seen that smile and no matter how tempting it was I refused.

"Sorry. It sounds tempting, but I want do some research."

"Okay. Well, say goodbye Naruto-chan, Hikaru-chan." Fukasaku told us.

We said our goodbyes and started to walk off. Strangely, Naruto was walking off with me while Fukasaku was still sitting in the same place.

"Hey Naruto... I thought you were going to Myobokuzan." I stated

"Yeah I am..." Naruto answered then suddenly turned around, wearing a sheepish grin. "By the way, where is Myobokuzan anyway?"

"It would take a month to reach it on foot. It's called the mountain of wandering. If you don't know the secret route, it's impossible to find." Fukasaku stated

"It's that hard just to get there...?" Naruto sadly sighed and slumped over.

"Naruto you've already made a pact with Gama. No need to worry." Fukasaku reassured him as the scroll that Naruto and I signed appeared out of nowhere. "All right I'll take them now."

"Thank you." Tsunade bowed

"Wait, what do you mean 'them?'" I asked

"And what do you mean 'no need to worry?'" Naruto asked as well.

All of a sudden, my vision was blocked by a cloud of smoke.

* * *

Myobokuzan

When the smoke cleared up I found myself surrounded by gigantic leaves and other vegetation.

"What?" A voice gasped beside me. I instantly snapped my head towards the voice's direction to find Naruto standing beside me. Soon Fukasaku appeared beside Naruto in a puff of smoke.

"Naruto."

"Hikaru."

We lowered our gaze slightly to find Gamakichi and Gamatatsu sitting before us.

"We summoned you guys." Gamakichi explained

Forgetting the fact that I was summoned here against my own will, my eyes immediately lit up with joy as I ran up to hug both of them.

"I see... Like little Jiraiya says, Hikaru-chan has a soft side for toads and other summon animals..." Fukasaku stated with a nod.

My face flushed to his comment and I removed myself from the two toad brothers. Meanwhile, the three toads and Naruto laughed at my embarressment.

"Anyway, first lets have something to eat. Follow me." Said Fukasaku, silencing the laughter.

As ordered, Naruto and I followed Fukasaku to his house where we were greeted by his wife, Shima. The three of us sat at the table looking down at the enormous amount of cooked bugs prepared for us.

"Eat up! I pulled out all the stops." Shima happily announced.

With her attitude it was hard to refuse to eat. Naruto and I hesitantly scooped up a spoonful of the algae green soup. Naruto sipped the soup before me and I could hear him quietly gagging. After hearing gag I began to feel nervous, my eyes slowly closed shut as the green liquid passed through my lips.

'_This isn't bad...'_

I glanced over to Shima's beaming smile and smiled back.

"This is delicious." I happily exclaimed before I ate more and more of the soup. Naruto gaped at me with his pale green face, watching me casually eat the toad food.

"Do you really like this?" Naruto whispered into my ear, while Fukasaku and Shima were chatting.

"It's a lot better than the food the hidden night village gave me when I was going to have my execu- uh..." I stopped myself before I could finish my sentence and peeked at Naruto's expression, hoping he did not know what I was about to say.

Unfortunately, he guessed right. His face had grew serious and slightly hurt at the same time. My head instinctively dropped down in shame. Meanwhile, in my mind I tried to think of something to change the subject when I felt something warm gently cover my hand. I glanced back at Naruto with surprise to see him lightly frowning.

"Why were you going to be executed? Tell me, please." Naruto quietly pleaded. His dejected tone made my heart ache.

"I-I can't... I'm afraid that..." I whispered back when Fukasaku inturrupted.

"What are you two talking about?"

We both looked up at Fukasaku and Shima who was watching us. Fukasaku wore a curious expression, while Shima wore a mischevious smile.

"I was just wondering why I was brought here." I quickly answered.

"That is... because I didn't want you going after or running into that Pein guy. Neither does Tsunade." Fukasaku answered as he finished eating the rest of his food. "Now let start training."

* * *

At the frog oil waterfall and toad statues

Naruto and I followed Fukasaku to our new training ground after thanking Shima for the meal. Once we got there, Naruto began to throw up all of the bugs that he ate and Fukasaku lightly scolded him. Saying that he didn't have time to be feeling queasy.

While Fukasaku and Gamakichi were explaining how to use natural energy I began to rethink my plans. I was planning to find some chakra recievers and gather some more corpses to see if I could make my own six paths like Pein, but due to Fukasaku bringing me to Myobokuzan I will have to delay my plans. Luckily, the days before coming here I had already gathered six corpses during my ANBU missions.

"This waterfall behind me is Myobokuzan's secret frog oil." Fukasaku's voice brought my attention back to him.

"Frog oil?" Naruto repeated in confusion.

"Come here and give me your hand." Fukasaku commanded and Naruto complied. Fukasaku dipped his finger into the oil and rubbed it into Naruto's skin.

"What does this do?" Naruto asked

"This frog oil has the power to draw natural energy to you. It'll help you two in your training." Fukasaku explained

"Cool! That's handy! I think I feel something on my skin." Naruto exclaimed

"By rubbing this on your skin it allows the natural energy to enter your body. Then you'll gradually feel it on your skin. This will allow you to grasp the feeling. Then eventually you'll be able to do it without the oil. But it's risky..." Fukasaku continued to explain.

While he was explaining I noticed Naruto's arm and a side of his face turning into a frog.

"Uh... Fukasaku-san, Naruto!" I began to panick.

"What?" Naruto asked and I pointed down to his arm. When he followed where I was pointing at and immediately screamed. He then rushed over to the waterfall to look at his face, still screaming.

"Those who can't fully control the natural energy will start to turn into frogs." Fukasaku stated.

Naruto continued to scream as I tried to calm him down when Fukasaku suddenly whacked the back of Naruto's head with a small bat.

"That hurt! What're you..." Naruto yelled but stopped when he was his reflection again. "I...I'm back to normal."

Fukasaku explained to us about how we have to balance our natural, spiritual, and physical energy to be able to use the natural energy. He also told us how all of the frog statues were the people who failed and he told us that Jiraiya was not able to master sage mode, but he was still able to use it.

"You've come this far, so I'll doubt you'll back back down now, but... I'll ask you just in case. What will you do?" Fukasaku asked Naruto

"My way is the same as that pervy sage!" Naruto stated with determination

"Okay! And what about you?" Fukasaku turned to me.

I tapped my chin, deep in thought as I ignored the anxious gazes of Fukasaku and Naruto. At last responded with a smile.

"Same here."

"That's the spirit! Now let's begin!"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Frog oil waterfall

Naruto and I sat down with our back's facing the waterfall. Naruto was in nothing but shorts. I wore shorts as well, but also I wore a bandage wrapping over my chest and upper arms. Time to time Fukasaku would splash oil on our backs then smack us with his staff when we began to change.

"OW!" Naruto yelled.

I opened one of my eyes to see Naruto rolling on the ground. A small chuckle escaped my lips when I was suddenly hit by Fukasaku.

"Ow!" I shouted as I rubbed the back of my head.

"Argh! Tomorrow I'll be bleeding internally all over!" Naruto complained

"What, are you giving up already? Little Jiraiya didn't complain this much." Fukasaku taunted. Naruto knitted his brows in annoyance when he thought of something.

"Hey! I know a better way to do this!"

"What do you mean?" Fukasaku asked

"I'll use kage bushin. That way I'll get more experience faster!" Naruto explained

"You experience everything you're clones experience. So if one of them turn into a frog, that'll be the end of it." Fukasaku stated and Naruto told him that he knew. "No more than four! My staff can't keep up with more than that!"

"I'll sit out for this one Fukasaku-san, so you can focus on Naruto." I told him before walking over to Gamakichi who was asleep.

From afar Gamakichi and I watched Fukasaku hit the four Naruto's as fast as he could, as if he was playing whack-a-mole. I could not help but laugh at the sight.

'**_Kid, it seems like some new members from Akatsuki are fighting Gyuki.'_**

Shugo Ryuu's voice cut off my laughter with his disturbing news.

_'Really? Who?'_

_'**... Sasuke and his new teammates.'**_

A chill ran up my spine when I heard that he was a part of Akatsuki. I was not really surprise that he joined Akatsuki after what Madara told him, but a part of my hopes that he would just return to Konoha and everything would return to normal. Of course that would never happen.

_'Is Gyuki and whoever containing him alright?'_

_**'So far so good, I'll let you know if anything happens.'**_

"Hikaru-chan, do you want to continue training?" Fukasaku called out to me.

I happily nodded and rejoined Naruto with our training. Many hours later I was able to sense the natural energy and I quickly turned to look at Fukasaku with a grin. A second later Naruto was cheerfully jumping around announcing that he could sense the energy too.

* * *

After eating, Fukasaku brought us back to the training grounds as he explained to us what we should do.

"Now you two are going to try to lift a frog stone. So first try lifting it using just your ninja chakra." Fukasaku ordered.

Naruto and I walked up to a frog statue beside each other and tried lifting it. As expected the statue wouldn't budge.

"Okay, now try to draw on your sage chakra." Fukasaku commanded.

We both rushed to dip our hands in the oil and focused on the natural energy. Once we were ready we tried to lift the statue again. This time we were able to lift the statues.

"Way to go Naruto, Hikaru!" Gamakichi cheered.

"I did it! I lifted it!" Naruto exclaimed, filled with excitement as he flipped over the statue. The statue hitting the ground made the ground shake, causing the statue that I held above my head to slip.

"Idiot! Don't knock over our ancestors!"Gamakichi scolded.

While Gamakichi was scolding, I did my best to regain control over the statue. However, my efforts were futile.

"Ah!" I yelped as I began to lose control.

My eyes automatically closed shut and I prepared myself to feel the pain. I waited for a moment to feel nothing but a thump beneath my feet. I cautiously reopened my eyes to find the statue knocked over in front of me and something warm touching my back.

'_Huh?'_

Slowly peering up I found Naruto standing behind me, his chest slightly pressed against my back.

"Th-thank you..." I managed to say as I tried to calm my beating heart.

Naruto looked down to meet my gaze and gave me his famous grin.

"I promised that I would protect you didn't I!"

_'He still remembers our promise when we were kids.'_

I opened my mouth to say something, but I was interrupted by Fukasaku smacking us on the head with his staff. Fukasaku yelled at us both for a long time before sending us to train with the oil again. After several more hours of training with the oil I was able to use the natural energy faster than Naruto. So, Fukasaku told me to go to his house to rest while Naruto finished mastering his training, which would not be long.

I was planning to follow his orders, but I ended up wandering on top of the large leaves. As I mindlessly walked from leaf to leaf, I could not help but rethink my life.

'_I can't believe that I'm still alive...'_

All the terrible memories made me not want to walk anymore. I flopped down on the leaf I was standing on, lying under the warm sun. My arm automatically draped over my eyes as I tried to remember the good memories I had. Memories of my days with Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. The seriousness we had during every mission and yet there would always have some funny moments contained in them too. The happy and sad times, I treasured them all. The longer I remembered my memories, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Flashback

I was brought to Konoha when I was four by Kakashi after finding me in the ruins of my home village, the hidden eclipse village. I quickly rushed out of the hospital after the doctors finished treating me. The doctors and nurses immediately ran after me, but luckily I was too fast for them.

Once I had lost sight of the doctors and nurses, I aimlessly strolled through the town. Adults and children watched me in fear as I passed by them. I wouldn't blame them since my whole body was wrapped up in bloody bandages. No matter how piercing their stare was I walked through the town in ease, since I was already used to the same treatment at my home village.

Eventually I found myself outside of the Academy and strangely I found a spiky blonde hair boy around my age sitting on a nearby swing, watching the older kids go to their parents. He enviously watched the kids' parents praising and giving them affection, but soon the parents took notice and began to glare daggers at him. Words like "demon" and "monster" were sent to him in harsh whispers.

'_So, he's just like me...'_

My heart ached at the sight of the unknown hatred towards the boy. I was afraid that if he was pushed too far he would be scared for life and the village would end up like mine. Thinking that, I quietly approached the boy and crouched down before him._  
_

"Hey... Why are you alone?" I asked.

The boy gazed at me with slight shock at my damaged appearance. Even though my baggy white shirt and black shorts covered my more server injuries, my appearance was still horrifying.

"Because everyone hates me because I'm different. Why do you care..." The boy answered in a depressed tone.

I remained silent, unsure what to say. Instead I began to pet his blonde head. I felt him flinch a bit to my touch, but gradually relaxed to my touch.

"...Why are you doing this?" He quietly asked.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't know you didn't like it. I should have asked first." I replied, regretting what I had just done.

Unexpectedly the boy shook his head and peered into my lifeless eyes.

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean why are you treating me so nicely?"

"Because you seem nice and I want... I mean, do you want to be friends?" I responded, slightly embarrassed.

Surprised, the boy shakily asked, "Y-Y-you w-want to be my friend?"

I nodded in response and softly smiled.

"If that's okay with you. I want to be your friend and I promise that I will protect you and be your friend no matter what."

As I finished, I held out my hand towards him. His eyes widened for a bit before hesitantly took my hand.

"My name is Hikaru."

"I'm Naruto and I promise that I'll protect you as well. Believe it!"

End Flashback

* * *

Mindscape

Just when I thought that I was about to wake up, I found Shugo Ryuu sitting beside me in his cage. The flames on the cage had vanished and all that was left was fragile metal bars.

"The cage is a lot weaker." I stated as I gently rapped my knuckles on the bars.

**"Of course. There is only one person left that is still keeping the seal on you."** Shugo Ryuu answered nonchalantly

"... Kakashi-sensei? If that so, then the third person the third Hokage mentioned is dead as well." I mumbled as I thought of who was the third person. All of a sudden a image flashed in my mind. "... Jiraiya-sensei?"

**"And here I thought you would have never found out who it was."** Shugo Ryuu teased,** "Anyway, Gyuki is okay."**

"... That's good... I wonder if I will be able to meet him and the host. I was never able to meet the others, except for Gaara." I whispered. "Hey Shugo Ryuu..."

"Hm?"

"Both sides of you have combined, right? So, why haven't you broken free yet?" I asked as I looked up at his red and gold eyes.

A soft chortle came from the other side of the cage after I finished my sentence.

"Why I wonder..."

Before I can presume questioning him, I was forced out and brought back into reality.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Naruto and I had finally mastered sage mode and it has been several days since we have been practicing the frog katas. At last we were finally trying to fuse with Fukasaku. However, no matter how hard we he tried Fukasaku could not fuse with either one of us. we decided to take a break from the training at eat.

"I'm going to gather some more food. Would you like to come Hikaru-chan?" Shima happily asked as she stood by the door with her basket.

'_I can get my sword and shakujo.'_

"Sure! Can I stop by my house to get something after gathering?" I asked as I threw my bag on my back.

Shima immediatly agreed and we both dived into the small pond, transporting us to Konoha.

* * *

Konoha

When we reached Konoha all of the cells in my body were screaming, trying to warn me of something. But what?

Soon my question was answered when we found ourselves staring down at the destroyed buildings in Konoha.

"What is this...?" Shima gasped

"Who... **Him**!" I growled.

I bolted into the town, ignoring Shima's calls and rushed to my apartment to grab my weapons. Throwing open the door of my closet, I dug out my weapons that were still connected to my ANBU uniform. In a few seconds I changed into my uniform and left the building when Pein used Shinra Tensei. All that was left was an enormous crater and the Hokage monuments.

As I sensed Naruto and all of the other toads' chakra, I pushed off the rubble on top of me to go help them fight Pein when I realized that I couldn't move my legs.

'_Paper...'_

"I see you came back too, Hikaru." A familiar feminine voice spoke from behind.

"Konan-san..." I muttered, glancing back at her. "I thought you would be taking care of Pein. No, Nagato-san."

She kept silent and slowly walked around me to face me. Suddenly I noticed that she was hovering in front of me as sheets of paper began to peel off her body and stick onto mine.

"Nagato wants you and the nine tails. So, I suggest you quietly come with us."

At that very moment three large trails of dust and explosions came from the crater. I narrowed my eyes on the closest fading dust cloud to see Gamaken lying on the ground.

"No. I don't care if you want me, but if you guys want to take Naruto you'll have to go through me first." I answered before allowing the purple ripple-like pattern spread over my eyes.

Konan's eyes widened to the sight of my eyes and instantly sent thousands of square papers to stick onto my body. The paper covered my entire body from head to toe and I could hear the soft fizzing sound of paper bombs.

"Shinra Tensei." I muttered. The paper and paper bombs ripped into shreds as if flew off of my body. My eyes darted from side to side in search of Konan. I could sense her chakra close by, but where, I do not know.

Cautiously, I walked through the rubble trying to find Konan, but she was no where to be seen.

'_Where is she?'_

I continued to walk as my guard gradually dropped and I began to wonder whether Naruto was okay or not. Just then I noticed something gently land by my foot. I glanced down to see what it was to find a paper rose. Soon more and more paper roses gently float down around me._  
_

"Shikigami no mai: Arashi." Konan announced from her hiding place, which was still unknown.

The paper roses fell apart into petals as it swirled around me, faster and faster until I was brought up into the air. As I awaited for the attack, I watched thousands of paper gather up in front of my to form Konan.

"I'll give you one last chance. Come with us and we will create a new peaceful world." Konan offered.

"...Why me?" I asked expressionlessly.

"You went through a similar past as us, maybe even worse. You understand our pain and want to make this pain go away." She finished off by extending her hand out to me. "Join us."

I stared at her hand, deep in thought as I sadly smiled.

"So what... After you create a new world do you expect that it will be peaceful forever?" I bitterly asked as I sent her a dark glare. "The world isn't like that. I rather try to fix this world now than destroying it. Give these people a chance!"

Konan stared at me, dumbfounded after I finished speaking. I quickly took this chance to preform my jutsu.

_'Yin-Yang: Power Rebirth.'_

Enormous monochrome waves of chakra rippled off my body, turning every single paper it hit into dust. Konan immediately snapped out of her daze and returned to her original form. We both casually landed on the ground as we prepared to attack. _  
_

"Huh? You're body... You're older." Konan breathed out in shock.

I smirked to her reaction. Right now I should appear to be in my early twenties, due to my previous jutsu.

"I'm not only older." I stated before disappearing from her sight and reappearing behind her. "I'm stronger too."

As soon as I said that I gently flicked the spine of her back, sending her to fly into the pile of rubble. I slowly approached the rubble where I threw Konan in to hear a faint groan. The cement pieces rolled off of her body as she attempted to move, but in the end she ended up falling back into the rubble. Without thinking, my body leaned in closer to the injured woman, my hand reaching out for her neck when a voice rang though my skull.

_**'Kid, now is not the time.'**_

I paused for a moment then softly sighed, '_You're right. Let's go.'_

* * *

With Naruto and Pein

Once I got to the area I found Naruto pinned down on the ground, while Hinata stood protectively before him.

As I got closer to them all I heard was Hinita saying, "I love you" before she lunged at Pein.

_'What's she trying to do? Kill herself!?'_

She swung her arms at him, only to have her attacks to be blocked. At last before Hinata could hit Pein with her jutsu he pushed her away with Shinra Tensei. At that moment I bolted towards them and grabbed Hinata before she made contact with the ground. However, the impact made pieces of the ground fly up around us.

"Wh-What?" Hinata stammered as she tightened her grip on my arms.

I glanced down to see her wide-eye expression when I asked, "Are you okay, Hinata-san?"

She looked up at me, still wearing her shocked expression and nodded. I narrowed my eyes as I examined her. She was far too stunned to fight, let alone help Naruto out of his trap. Sighing, I carried Hinata over to Naruto's side before facing Pein.

"... I see that you have defeated Konan." Pein emotionlessly stated

His emotionless tone slightly angered me since it was obvious that Konan really cares for him, but he showed no emotion in return. As if he didn't care if she was alive or not.

"She's still alive, just unable to move for a while." I answered in the exact same tone as his. I swore that I saw a hint of relif flicker in his eyes, but I was probably just seeing things.

Thinking that I might not have enough stamina and speed to defeat Pein I activated sage mode. Luckily, I activated it. Since Pein tried to hit me with a surprise attack from his sword, which I was able to block just in time thanks to sage mode.

We both exchanged attacks, both jutsus and weapons. However, no matter how hard we both tried, we were equally matched. We were covered with deep cuts, bruises, and burns.

_'I cannot hold the sage form any longer.'_ I thought as I wiped the sweat and blood off my chin.

In front of me, Deva path was on one knee as he quietly regained some strength. I would have continued attacking him if I wasn't in the same condition. Suddenly I noticed his lips move as if he was saying something and the next thing I knew I was shot up into the air, gradually beginning to fall.

As I was plummeting down towards the ground, I caught sight of Pein just staring at me.

'_Now's my chance.'_

I concentrated my chakra onto my sword and held it over my head.

"Heaven's wrath!" I exclaimed as I swung my blade foreward, shooting a gigantic and violent mixture of black and white chakra towards him.

"Now I need to protect Naruto and Hinata." I told myself as I glanced over to where the two were to only find Naruto, frantically shouting at something in front of his. Following his gaze, I found Hinata trapped in Pein's grasp.

As fast as I could, I summoned three shadow clones. Two to get Hinata and the other was falling with me. My clone beside me quickly grabbed my wrist and spun me around in the air. The clone spun me faster and faster until it reached the wanted speed, then released me, hurling me faster down towards Pein.

Meanwhile, my clones were able to get Hinata away and threw her over to Naruto, before fighting Pein. While he was distracted I landed on the ground quietly, creating a few hand signs and using up the rest of my chakra.

"Doton: roku-sō dōmu."

Six layers of thick rock covered Naruto and Hinata like a dome. Straight after, I joined my clones, who were still fighting Pein.

"I have enough of this." Pein grumbled as he slashed the two clones. The two clones instantly vanished and Pein turned his attention to me. "One more..."

Just as he said that he stabbed his sword through my stomach. My hand instinctively grasped his wrist with my free hand, keeping a firm grip on him.

"You're the real..." Pein trailed off and gazed up at the chakra ball only a few feet away from us.

"No jutsu can stop it. Not even your Shinra Tensei." I stated before coughing up some blood.

Pein stared at me in shock and I merely gave him a painful smile in return. Soon all we saw was nothing but darkness. My body felt like it was getting cold and numb, and yet the interior of my body felt like it was on fire and as if millions of knives was stabbing me.

The light slowly seeped into the darkness, bringing us back into the light. My body returned to it's original age, but it didn't help me get rid of the coldness seeping in me. My hands that dropped to my sides and knees buckled beneath me, causing me to drop to the crumbling ground. As the pain increased, I stared at the figure standing in front of me. Black flakes of paper dissenegrated and revealed Pein peering down at me.

_'So that's why he hasn't fallen yet.'_

Pein opened his mouth to say something when gallons of blood abruptly gushed out of his mouth. His form began to tremble and fall, but someone caught him just in time.

"Konan..." Pein mumbled then returned his attention to me. "I thought that you would be useful for us that's why I saved you from being executed. I guess I was wrong."

"I was thankful that you saved me for death and I would even capture other jinchuuriki to repay you. However, if you try to extract Naruto like Garra... I would rather throw away my life to protect him." I determinedly stated with a strained voice.

Pein lightly glared at me then yanked out the sword that was still lodged in my gut. The sharp pain shot through my pain filled body, causing me collapse. In the corner of my eye, I saw his arm set in an angle, ready to jab the blade into my chest.

"Stop!" Naruto yelled. Pein shifted his gaze upwards at him for a moment, then turned back to look at me.

Most of my life had already flown out of me and now all I could do was try to keep the cold darkness of death away for a while. Unexpectedly Pein stuck his blade into my arm and pulled it out to show Naruto.

"This is just like how my parents were killed by Konoha ninjas, right before my eyes." He nonchalantly stated.

At last I could not keep the darkness away anymore. My heavy eyelids finally sealed shut and I could not hear anyone outside of my mind.

**'Stay** awake kid!'

_'I'm sorry Shugo Ryuu... I can't anymore.'_

_**'But...'**_

_'Please just promise me one thing... Keep Naruto safe when I'm gone.'_

_'**Hikaru... Don't...'**_

I could not hear the rest of Shugo Ryuu's words as his words became quieter and quieter.

_'Goodbye Naruto... I love you.'_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

(3rd person perpective)

Konan carefully picked up the teenage ANBU from the ground and awaited for her orders.

"Love breeds sacrifice... Which breed hatred." Pein stated as he stared at the deceased girl in his partner's arms. "Then you can know pain."

His hand lightly stroked the girl's dark hair as he signaled Konan to leave. The blue haired woman simply nodded and bolted away, leaving Naruto and Pein alone. Once Naruto saw her leave, his rage overtook him. Screaming, Naruto turned into the fourth tail form then the sixth.

"Do you hate me? Do you really thing people can understand each other like this?" Pein asked and Naruto roared in response. "That's it... But, my pain is greater than yours."

After breaking apart his necklace, Naruto lunged at Pein in which he tried to protect himself by sending Naruto to fly away. However, Naruto was too strong and sent Pein to fly back instead. Once Pein hit the wall of the crater Naruto flashed up in front of him and began to create a massive chakra ball. Before Naruto could hit him with the ball, he commanded a large piece of land to smash into the side of Naruto's face. The chakra ball was directed to the side, destroying one of the sides of the crater.

_'The fox's power is amazing.' _Pein thought.

Pein saw that he was free from Naruto's attack for a short while, so he took this chance to move farther away from the ruins of Konoha village. As expected, Naruto chased after him.

"God realm is close enough now." Nagato stated, then through Pein he clapped his hands together and used his secret technique. "Chibaku Tensei."

"You don't have to go that far! You're in no shape-" Konan worriedly stated, when Nagato cut her off.

"Be quiet Konan... I need to concentrate. Go gather some more chakra rods for Hikaru's body." Nagato snapped

Konan sadly sighed and left the room to search for the chakra rods. Meanwhile, Pein trapped Naruto in a gigantic ball of rocks.

"There's no need to go that far." Konan mumbled as she returned with a hand full of different sized chakra rods.

"...This is the fox were talking about... I can't afford to go easy on him." Nagato panted as he gazed at the giant ball floating in the air, ignoring the blood dripping down his nose. "... Besides, compared to the mood the sage of six paths was said to have created. This is nothing. If I was using Hikaru's body I would have been able to create another moon... Anyway, I've captured the nine tail fox."

* * *

With Hikaru in the afterlife

(1st person perspective)

I found myself aimlessly walking through the darkness. It felt like I had been walking for hours to find that I was alone. My eyes automatically casted down to my moving feet and I allowed my mind wander.

_'I wonder how Naruto is doing. Hope he's alright. What am I suppose to do now?'_

The thoughts repeated in my mind like a chant until I noticed a soft light on my feet. Gazing upwards, I found myself standing before a medium sized house, my old house. I stood at the front door, staring at it for hours, examining every single detail. My trembling hand finally reached for the brass handle when the door opened by it's self.

"Ah! Welcome home, Hikaru." A cheery feminine voice came from the other side of the door.

'_That voice...'_

I instinctively looked up from the doornob and saw a beautiful young woman. She had short black hair and bright brown eyes. She also wore a long pink dress and a matching hair clip on the left side of her bangs.

"Okasan." I breathed out in shock and the woman merely smiled and nodded.

It was quiet hard to believe that she was my mother. Since compared to the last time I saw her, she was sick and pale, which caused her death. Okasan noticed that I was not moving from where I was standing and gently took my cold hand into her warm ones.

"Come on in. This is your home as well after all." Okasan happily stated as she led me deeper into the house.

Inside the house was warm and welcoming. Anyone who steps foot into this house would automatically feel like this was their home too. As we strolled down the halls, I noticed the photos of her and my father and at time with my brother hanging on the wall.

'_That's right... Our house used to be decorated like this before okasan died.'_

Memories of my mother's death and the outcome of her death flooded me mind. The brutal punishments I received from my father and brother, having to wear chains 24/7 and being locked up in a small room with nothing but jutsu scrolls to study. The looks I earned from my family when they saw me was anger and hatred, but when they saw that I mastered all five elements in no time they feared me. Not once did they praise me or show me the slightest affection. Not to mention the cruel treatment I received from the citizens of the hidden eclipse village didn't help soothe my feeling either.

"Honey, Arashi, look who has finally arrived." Okasan announced as she threw open the door.

I hung my head down and kept my eyes on my feet. How much I hated to admit it but... I was afraid. I didn't was to see the fear or hatred in my father and brother's eyes anymore. I dealt with their treatment for a year then the next thing I knew was that my whole village was destroyed by me. Sure I did not remember killing my family, but I do remember scenes of the carnage I caused.

"Welcome home, Hikaru." A deep kind voice spoke.

"Yeah! Welcome home little sis." A younger and higher voice greeted after the deeper voice.

Cautiously, I peered up to see a happy young man and a gleeful six year old boy smiling at me. Their eyes held no hatred whatsoever, only warmth. The warmth I had forgotten and longed for so long. I finally received it after my death.

"I... I'm back."

My family's smile brightened when they heard me speak. Almost instantly, my mother sat me down by the table, across from my father and brother while she sat beside me.

"Hikaru, how old are you?" Okasan asked in a gentle tone.

"Sixteen."

"Wow. It has been so long..." Otousan murmured, sadly smiling. "Will you tell us your story?"

Returning the smile, I replied, "Sure, but it's a long story. Do you still want to listen?"

* * *

With Naruto

(3rd person view)

Naruto had convinced Shikamaru's father, Shikaku and Ino's father Inochi to let him confront Pein alone. Soon Naruto found a life size tree made of paper. He pushed the paper aside as he entered the hideout, finding a boney pale man attached to some sort of machinery and a blue hair woman kneeling down beside him, holding the ANBU girl's lifeless body in her arms. The woman darkened her glare on Naruto as she started to stand.

"Stand back, Konan. Just continue with what you were doing." The man ordered.

"Nagato..." Konan breathed out, slightly shocked but she returned to her work.

"Are you the real one?" Naruto demanded

"So peace have arrived, eh?" Nagato sarcastically stated.

Naruto expression gradually grew darker at the sight of Nagato, but his anger disappeared for a moment when he saw Konan taking off the ANBU girl's mask. In the barely lit room he was finally able to see the ANBU's true identity. The girl was about the same age as him. There was a trail of dried blood running down her chin, her face was scratched up and several strands of her dark chestnut brown hair fell over her closed eyes. He recognized the girl almost instantly.

"Hikaru!" Naruto shouted and made a step towards the girl. However, seeing that Konan was protectively holding onto her, he could not reclaim his friend. Instead, Naruto continued to call Hikaru's name.

"It's useless. She's already gone." Nagato nonchalantly stated.

Naruto ignored Nagato's comment and continued calling her, telling her to wake up. At last when he saw that Hikaru was not making any movement whatsoever he pulled out the wooden doll that she had given him before. The wooden doll was covered with dark red marks and in the very center of the doll's chest was a deep crack the spread across the rest of it's torso.

_'No, it can't be. Not her. Anyone but her.'_

Naruto's eyes burned from holding back his tears. He glared at Nagato once again with an even darker expression and he could feel the kyubi wanting to take over him again._  
_

"Do you hate me? Now that you see me before you and your dead friend beside me. You want you're revenge, don't you?" Nagato taunted

"If you kill Nagato and get your revenge, that won't change anything. It'll only make you feel better." Konan desperately announced, forgetting the job that Nagato had assigned her.

Naruto glanced over to Hikaru's body to see a small smile created with her bloody lips, as if she was encouraging him to stay strong.

"There's noting you can do. You couldn't even give me an answer. Your role is to the sacrifice that allows me to bring peace to the world. That is the right answer." Nagato stated before firing a large chakra receiver at Naruto. Naruto made not attempt to dodge the attack and allowed the rod to pierce his stomach. "Don't worry. It's not a fatal wound. As the host, you are very important to me, after all."

Naruto slowly moved his head up to look at Nagato with his pulse sign eyes, forcing Nagato to feel the Kyubi's chakra. Konan noticed that there was something wrong with Nagato and asked if he was alright. However, Nagato was unable to answer.

"I came here to talk to you... But there was still something else I wanted to find out, too." Naruto calmly stated.

"Something... You wanted to find out?" Nagato repeated

"I wanted to see how I would feel... I don't know how I would feel if I really saw you in front of me." Naruto stated

"And..."

"And I can't forgive you. I want to kill you so much that I'm trembling." Naruto added. He ripped out the rod from his gut and lunged towards Nagato, wanting to punch him but stopped. "That pervy sage said that the day will come when people will truly understand one another... He had faith. When he told me that I wasn't really listening to him. He said that he wanted me to find the answer. But I was just glad to have his approval. Now I finally know what he meant. It's not that easy."

"But that doesn't change the fact that you can't forgive me. Love and forgiveness can't be bought with pretty words."

"Yeah... You're right."

"It's too late for Jiraiya's idealism anymore. That's just not realistic. You said that you would defeat me and bring peace to the world, didn't you?" Nagato stated. "Even if that's just an excuse for your selfish revenge, if that's your justice, that's fine... You're not god. Can you really believe Jiraiya's nonsense after seeing reality?"

"... When I found out that you had been his apprentice there was something I really want to ask you."

"What?"

"If you were his apprentice, how did you turn out like this? I don't know anything about you. I want to hear your story. Before I give you my answer." Naruto said sincerely.

After a moment of silence Nagato agreed to tell him his story.

"Nagato, that's just a waste of time. Just hurry up and-" Konan started, but was cut off by Nagato.

"Wait, Konan. I want to hear his answer."

Nagato told Naruto his story about the death of his parents and the death of his good friend Yahiko, the two causes of his pain. Also the reason how he turned out like his was now. After listening to his story, Naruto gave him his answer about how he would break the corruption and bring peace, using the exact same words Nagato used many years ago.

"No wonder Hikaru was so fond of you... I couldn't believe in what Jiraiya believed in. Or in the man himself. But... You chose a different path. In you I can see a different future." Nagato pulled out his hands from the machine and formed a hand seal. "I will believe in you, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Gedo rinne Tensei no jutsu." Nagato announced and Konan immediately panicked.

"Nagato you-" Konan began to yell when Nagato stopped her.

"Konan it's enough... I have a new choice... A choice I'd given up on." Nagato stated then gazed down at Hikaru in her arms. "Better give her back to Naruto. He will need her in the future and she will need him."

Konan sadly gazed at Nagato then to Hikaru, reluctantly handing the girl to Naruto. Naruto quickly took Hikaru out of Konan's hands and held onto her when he asked, "What is that jutsu?"

"... He who controls the Rinnegan is the master of all six path techniques. They say that they are outside of life and death. Nagato is the seventh path, able to control life and death." Konan answered and gazed down at Hikaru again. "After Nagato is gone the only person who can do this technique is her."

"Gedo." Nagato quietly announced, finishing his jutsu.

* * *

With Hikaru

(first person perspective)

I had finally finished my story about my life and my family fell silent. Meanwhile, I sat in the awkward silence trying to think of something to break it when the three spoke.

"Sorry."

'_... Wait! What?!' _I watched my family, dumbfounded by what I just heard.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't be with you to support you." Okasan told me, wearing a sad smile.

"Sorry that I caused so much pain to you when you were so young." Otousan stated

"Same here." Arashi added.

I continued to stay silent as their apologies racked in my head, before I knew it my vision was blurred and I felt something wet running down my cheeks.

'_Tears?'_

"No, don't be." I croaked and dried my face with my arm. "I'm sorry that you all died because of me."

"What are you talking about?" Arashi laughed, causing me to snapped my head up to look at him. "Ka-chan died from a weak health, and Tou-chan and I died from a man wearing an orange mask."

"... You mean I didn't kill you guys along with the rest of the village?"

My family happily nodded and another load of tears spilled out again.

"Thank goodness... Thank goodness." I quietly chanted.

All of a sudden I felt something strange tingling in my body. When I removed my arm away from my eyes I saw that I was glowing green.

"It looks like you still have things to do." Okasan stated with her normal warm smile. "Don't come back here until you're an old woman."

I softly laughed at her comment, but stopped when I heard my father speaking.

"Hikaru... be careful with the guy in the orange mask. He-"

Before I could hear the rest of his warning, I was swallowed by the light.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

My eyes slowly opened to see a black and orange fabric next to my face. The fabric was warm, unlike my body which was ice cold. I wearily gazed up, wanting to see the bright blue sky again when I saw something else.

"Na-Naruto?" I quietly asked.

Naruto instantly looked down with a surprised expression. He was staring at me in silence and I began to feel a little worried.

"Naruto, are you alrig-" Before I could finish Naruto pulled me into a tight embrace.

"... Don't ever do that again!" Naruto angrily demanded as he hugged me even tighter. "Don't risk your life again."

'_Naruto...'_

I gently placed my hands on his back, allowing his warmth to spread through my body.

"I'm sorry... And..." I quickly planted a soft peck on his cheek. "Thank you."

I could feel his skin heat up to the slightest touch of my lips.

"H-Hikaru..." Naruto stuttered, making me realize what I had done.

"Oh! Crap! I'm sorry!" I pushed myself away and began to stand up when I was pulled down onto Naruto's lap.

Surprised by his actions, I was left speechless. All I could do was stare into his deep blue eyes that showed that he was as surprise as me. Suddenly I noticed his eyes gradually closing as his face got closer. Even I found myself doing the exact same thing.

Now Naruto and my face were extremely close, our lips were less than a centimeter away and I could feel his breath gently tickling my cheek. As our lips were about to touch, my vision was blocked by a cloud of smoke and I somehow felt like I was floating for a short second before falling onto Naruto's lap again. When the smoke cleared up I found my face further away from Naruto, my body felt weaker and when I gazed down at my hands they were a lot smaller than usual.

"Wh-Wh-WHAT!" Naruto shouted and he grabbed his head with both hands. "What happened! Why are you a kid?!"

I started to laugh at Naruto's shocked expression and his panicking reaction. "Don't worry. Don't worry. It's just a side effect to one of my jutsus I used before. I will be like this for two or three days."

'_I guess the power rebirth jutsu still takes effect after being brought back to life.'_

Naruto let out a loud sigh and flopped down on his back, his arm draped over his eyes.

"So close." He muttered, but I thought that I misheard him. I was about to ask him what he said when a voice appeared behind me.

"Goos job, Naruto."

Both Naruto and I gazed up to see Kakashi standing there, sending us an eye smile.

"Kakashi-sensei!" We both exclaimed excitedly, yet wearily as well.

Kakashi reached down to pick up Naruto as I quickly got off him. The weapons on my back made my balance uneven, but I made sure that I didn't fall on my butt. Just then I noticed the dog-shaped mask lying by my feet.

_'My mask...'_

"You better be one heck of a good Hokage, Naruto." I quietly whispered

Naruto seemed to have heard me and he flashed me his famous smile, as if he was saying 'of course!' I returned the smile and followed the two back to the village.

* * *

Back at Konoha

Once we arrived to the village, Naruto was showered with cheers, love, and affection. What Naruto had always wanted. From a young boy who was hated by everyone to a teenager who is now loved by everyone... He really has grown a lot. All of the citizens surrounded Naruto, pushing me and Kakashi aside.

I found myself smiling at the sight of Naruto being tossed up and down in the air, but soon my happiness vanished when I felt a cold chill run up my spine. I glanced around in attempt to find the cause of my uneasiness. Soon I found the cause hiding in the trees.

'_Zetsu-san.'_

He seemed to have noticed my gaze since he waved at me before disappearing into the tree. I unconsciously glanced down at the rings on my hands and realized that I had Konan's and Nagato's ring as well.

_'What's going to happen next?'_

* * *

A few days later

After the two hectic days of being chased around with a dress by the Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Ten-ten. I finally regained my original teenage body before the girls could see me in a dress as a child.

"Mokuton: renchuka no jutsu"

"Yin-yang: blueprint"

Right now, Yamato and I are slowly rebuilding the town. We have been doing the exact same thing for several of days and by the end of the day we would be too tired to move or some times pass out from exhaustion. Yamato would rest right after his jutsu, but I would usually continue working despite the fact that I had ran out of my own chakra and I would be using Shugo Ryuu's.

Finally, Yamato and I had used up all of our chakra on the buildings and now we were heavily panting while the crowd around us were cheering. They were saying how Konoha will be fixed in no time if we kept doing what we were doing.

"You make it sound so easy..." Yamato panted out

I softly chuckled at Yamato's complaint as I spoke, "Yamato-San, I'm going to go take a break."

Yamato nodded in response and I walked off in search for Naruto and Sakura. Soon I found the two and Kakashi talking to a familiar looking old man and a young boy standing beside him.

'_Inari and Tazuna?'_

"Where's Sasuke and that tomboy Hikaru? I wanted to talk to them, too." I heard Tazuna asked and my teacher and teammates' faces grew grim.

At first I could not think of anything to say, but seeing Sakura's depressed expression I decided to speak.

"Tomboy? I guess I'll take that as a compliment." I stated as cheerfully as I possibly could.

Tazuna and Inari turned around to see me approaching. Tazuna was smiling brightly, while Inari looked a bit red.

"Oh Hikaru! You look more like a girl than when we first met." Tazuna laughed "Back then you were dressed like a boy."

I simply laughed at his comment before turning my attention towards Inari, "You look all grown up, Inari."

Inari's red cheeks seemed to have darkened, making it his blush more visible to see.

"And you look very pretty, Hikaru-oneechan." Inari replied as bravely as possible, but his voice seemed to have weakened compared to his conversation with the others.

Putting that fact aside, Inari's compliment made me blush. Since I had never heard anyone use the word "pretty" when they were referring to me. But either way I thanked him for the compliment.

"So, where is Sasuke?" Tazuna asked again

Kakashi scratched the back of his head as he hesitantly answered, "Uh... The thing is... Sasuke's... Uh..."

"Sasuke." Naruto cut in, putting his goofy smile on. "Sasuke and I had a fight, so he left the village for a while. But... I'll bring him back soon! You can say Hi when he gets back. I'm sure Sasuke'd love to see you again. Right, Sakura-chan?"

"Y-Yeah..." Sakura replied

"What was the trouble... Some sort of love triangle?" Tazuna jokingly asked

"Yes." I bluntly answered, even though it was a lie.

"Of course not!" Naruto answered at the same time.

Naruto and I then looked at each other, causing the two visitors to laugh.

"I believe Hikaru more." Tazuna answered, causing Naruto to look at him in shock while I smiled in triumph.

"What?! Why?" Naruto asked, still maintaining his shock.

"Because back then it was obvious that you had a huge crush on Sakura. Even Inari could tell... But there was only one thing that still bothers me." Tazuna trailed off and set his gaze on me. "... I thought Sasuke was interested in you... But I guess I was wrong."

"Wha-" I started, but the image of Sasuke kissing me flashed in my mind.

Kakashi watched our smiling faces grow grim. He quickly changed the subject before Tazuna and Inari could notice out expressions. After a while of small talk, Tazuna and Inari left.

"Where are you Sasuke..." Both Naruto and I mumbled as we gazed out at the blue sky.


	18. Chapter 18

**To All Viewer and Reviewers: Sorry for the wait, but I had a lot of stuff to deal with at school. There are still more things I still have to do, but I will try to post each story as soon as possible.**

**Also Thank you all for your comments and suggestions! I really appreciate it! I will do my best to use your suggestions and improve my story. Please continue reading and thanks again!**

* * *

Chapter 18

Gazing out into the blue open sky, a black hawk flew into our sight. The hawk first looked like it was going to continue flying somewhere else when it began to circle above us.

'_Danzo?... What does he want now?' _A faint frown appeared on my previously troubled face.

"A bird?" Naruto asked out loud, his confusion was clearly visible.

"Is it for you Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. Both Naruto and I glanced at Kakashi who sneaked peeks at me as if he was wondering what I would say.

My shoulders slumped in disappointment when I heard the bird calling above me.

"I'm going to go now. I'll see you guys later." I flashed all of them a false smile before heading to the trees.

"Wait up, Hikaru!" Naruto called as he ran up to my side. He was wearing his usual idiotic grin and one of his hands was set at the back of his head. "I'll go with you."

I was stunned for a moment by Naruto's words, but soon I regained my composure when the soft sounds of footsteps entered my ears.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but it's probably best if you don't. Maybe later, Okay?"

Naruto's smile immediately fell into disappointment, same as when Sakura rejected his date invites. He quickly realized what he did and replaced his frown with a forced smile. His actions made my chest hurt.

"Alright, next time."

"Naruto..." I whispered and looked away to Kakashi and Sakura. An idea suddenly popped up in my head.

_'I hate to do this but...' _My eyes closed tightly as I tried to lessen the pain in my chest. Seeing that the pain was not leaving I reopened my eyes to look into Naruto's saddened eyes.

"Why don't you go with Sakura for now and..." I trailed off when I noticed his sadness grew worse. "Don't push yourself to look like your happy..."

Naruto's eyes widened from shock, but I merely gave him another smile before disappearing into the trees.

* * *

With Danzo

I pushed aside the cloth of the newly prepared tent as I entered. Inside the tent sat Danzo with two ANBU members standing by his side. The two men were staring at me intensely, while Danzo was scanning through the scroll on his lap. Other than the three men before me, there were a dozen fresh corpses spread across the floor.

"Um... Danzo-san, you called for me?" I questioned, trying to focus all of my attention on Danzo instead of the corpses.

Danzo rolled up the scroll as he spoke, "You will refer to me as the sixth Hokage from now on."

'_The sixth Hokage!? What about Tsunade?' _My lips formed into a thin line and a bone-chilling feeling coursed through my veins. _'This isn't good.'_

"Congratulations... Hokage-sama." I struggled to say, but still wore my famous fake smile.

Danzo slowly rose from his chair and approached me until he was only a few feet away. The other two men started to grow anxious by his actions, but they held themselves back. Gazing back at Danzo again, there was a visible smirk created by the corners of his lips.

He abruptly placed the scroll into my hands and continued to stare at me. Assuming that he wanted me to read the scroll, I carefully opened it to read. However, once I opened the scroll I saw many strange symbols that seemed slightly similar.

"What is this?" I muttered as I narrowed my eyes.

* * *

**Flashback**

(About a year and a half before Sasuke left)

Outside in the the lush green grass, under the hot rays of the sun and surrounded by towering green trees. There I stood, face to face, with Sasuke.

"Go Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cheered, cupping her hands to either side of her mouth to make her voice ten times louder. Meanwhile, Naruto stood beside the pink hair girl with his arms crossed over his chest and his lips formed a pout, obviously jealous that Sasuke is taking all of Sakura's attention.

"Why can't you fight me instead." Naruto wined, "I can beat you with both hands tied behind my back."

I took a quick glimpse at the crowd beside us. Most of the crowd contained Sasuke's screaming fan girls and the rest of the crowd were Naruto, Kakashi, team Gai, team Kurenai, and team Asuma.

'_Why are they all here? I thought that this was training just between the two of us?' _A faint frown appeared on my face as I glanced at the crowd again.

Returning my attention to Sasuke, I found him slightly scowling at the crowd.

'_I guess he finds it annoying too.' _I thought to myself and softly smirked at his expression. _'Well Sasuke... Let's begin.'_

Wit that thought, I hurled a shuriken towards him. All of the fan girls cried a warning to him, snapping him back into the battle and causing him to duck. He immediately sent a dark glare at me, but I merely gave a smile in return before throwing more shurikens at him. Soon, the two of us fought mercilessly and scaring everyone in the crowd, but between us, we were secretly enjoying ever moment of our battle.

In the end we fought until the day turned to night. Our weapons were pinned on the ground and the trees, and the once beautiful scenery transformed into a battlefield covered with craters and burnt trees.

At last, when the clock struck twelve we both collapsed beside each other from exhaustion.

"That was... Fun..." I announced between pants.

"... Yeah..." Sasuke replied, which stunned me for a moment. I had never thought that Sasuke would admit that he found the spar fun as well. I guess I was wrong.

"We should probably get going." I stated as I slowly got up to my trembling legs.

Unfortunately once I got up to my feet my vision began to blur and a headsplitting pain in my skull. I didn't care that I was about to fall flat on my face, all I was focused on was my headache. My eyes closed shut as I waited for the impact of the ground when instead I felt myself land on something softer.

"Huh?" I was able to utter, despite the fact that the rest of my body couldn't move due to my headache. After blinking my eyes several of times, I suddenly realized what I had landed on. "S-Sasuke!?"

Sasuke was unresponsive to my shock. Instead he continued to carry me on his back in silence. Usually I would relentlessly try to get off and walk by myself, but this time I was too tired to do so. I gently rested my chin on his shoulder with my face several centimeters away from his and my arms wrapped loosely around his neck. The longer he carried me the more it seemed that his body got hotter.

Strangely as he carried me, my eyelids grew heavier and heavier to the point that I could not keep them open anymore. Before I slipped into deep sleep I was able to whisper one single word.

"Thanks."

Time skip: next day

A yellow beam of warm light seeped through the gaps of the white curtains. The warm light shined on my face, telling me to wake up. My eyes slowly flutter open to show me a cream-colored ceiling.

"Where am I?" I mumbled aloud with my newly hoarse voice.

A few moments later I slowly sat up, baring the the pain in my body. My body was stiff from all of the bandages and injuries I gained.

_'Who patched me up?' _I asked myself as I strolled across the tatami flooring.

Once I left the room I checked every room near me to find that there was no one there. Seeing that whoever brought me here might still be around, I pulled out a kunai just in case as I cautiously entered the last room. It was there in that room I found a onyx hair boy sleeping on the floor and the other side of the room had a big stone tablet with marking carved into the stone.

'_So, it was Sasuke...' _

I slowly approached the sleeping Sasuke when my eyes caught onto the tablet again. With out me even realizing, I had activated Rennigan and strangely I was able to understand the writing. I reread the tablet over and over, not believing the information that I was marked onto the stone.

_'No, there can't be... There can't be a ten-tail beast.'_

**End Flashback**

* * *

Back with Danzo

I had activated Rennigan once again in attempt to read the scroll. Luckily, the writing was just the same as the stone tablet.

'_Body manipulation jutsu?' _I asked myself in my mind. As I continued reading, I recognized the concentric circles marked on the ground of the drawing and the man's forehead. '_So, others can control my body or the other way around?... That's how I was able to witness Jiraiya's death and find out about Madara...'_

A frown gradually crept to my face, but I whipped it away before it became visible. Rolling up the scroll again, I deadpanned, "You want me to use this jutsu on those corpses don't you?"

Danzo only stared at me as if he is wanting me to read his mind. I inwardly sighed as I bit my thumb. I drew the concentric circles on the corpses' forehead and the ground, next I focused most of my chakra on my palm as I slammed them on each of the corpses. The concentric circles glowed red for a moment before fading away.

_'Now time to test this out.' _

I knitted my brow as I focused all of my thoughts on the corpses. Soon my original body fell to the ground while the corpses leisurely stood up, all of them gained the Rennigan eyes. From the corpses' perspective, I was able to see my limp body on the ground as I tried to make my own body to move. After a while, my vision returned to my original body and I stood up along side with the corpses.

"Excellent." Danzo dully exclaimed, while he examined each one of us. "Now, You must spread out to find Uchiha Sasuke and eliminate him."

My body temperature instantly dropped to match the corpses' body temperature and I suddenly felt ill.

_'What?! I-I can't do that!'_

However, unlike my mind, my body automatically nodded and bolted away with all of the other corpses in search for my old missing nin friend, Sasuke.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

All of the corpses flashed away in all different directions right as we left Danzo's tent. Meanwhile, Danzo left the tent as well with his two bodyguards and they departed the village to go to the land of the iron, where the five kage's meeting was held.

_'I wonder if Sasuke will go to the land of the iron as well...' _I thought as I narrowed my eyes at Danzo and his bodyguards. _'I better follow them.'_

As I took a step towards the group, Sai suddenly appeared before me. Strangely, he wore a slightly bothered expression on his usual expressionless face.

"Sai? What's wrong?" I asked.

He did not bother to answer. Instead he grabbed my wrist and ran towards the other tents. Seeing that I am going to lose my chance on following Danzo, I sent a corpse to follow him while I went with Sai.

Sai finally stopped in front of a tan-colored tent and leaned close to my ear.

"Naruto was beaten up by some ninjas from the cloud village because he refused to tell them about Sasuke." He whispered.

I looked at him in slight shock at the news when I asked,"Is he okay? Did Sakura help tend his wounds yet?"

"He told me not to tell Sakura... I assume he doesn't want her to worry about the situation with Sasuke."

Hearing what he just said made my heart sting and my head ache.

"I swear his promise with Sakura has become a curse to both of them..." I muttered before I entered the tent.

Inside the tent I found Naruto sitting up on the futon while Kakashi and Yamato were setting out the first aid equipment. Once I entered the room, everyone turned their attention towards me and Sai.

"Hikaru..." Naruto breathed out in surprise.

"Seriously Naruto... What's with you and getting beaten up all the time?" I sighed as I took one of his arms and started to heal it.

"H-Hey! I don't get beaten up all the ti-OW!" He screamed when I tightened my grasp on his wounds.

"Huh? What were you saying?" I joked as I continued to heal his wounds, but a lot more gentle this time.

"Nothing." he instantly replied and the others chuckled nervously.

After hearing his response I softly smiled at him and finished up healing his more server wounds.

"You're always putting Sakura and everyone before you, don't you?" I mumbled. Naruto looked at me with a slightly surprised expression and knowing he would probably say something to my comment I quickly turned my attention to Sai. "Sai, can you help wrap him up when I finish treating his injuries?"

Sai nodded and immediately grabbed a roll of bandage from the kit. Sai and I slowly patched up Naruto's wounds with great care. Once I had finished healing I started to pack up the first aid kit, while Sai finished wrapping him.

As I placed the first aid kit to it's proper place, I glanced over to examine Naruto's condition again.

"You still look pretty bad." I honestly stated

"Yeah, maybe you should have Sakura to take a look at you..." Sai added

"I don't want to have to explain this. Besides, I heal quickly, so it's okay." Naruto answered, then after a short pause he continued to speak. "Sai... I'm sorry... And thanks."

Seeing that I wasn't needed anymore, I decided to leave the tent and stop by mine to prepare for my mission.

* * *

Several minutes later

Kakashi entered my tent and explained to me that Naruto wanted to speak to the Raikage. Just by hearing that my head began to spin.

"I need your help to take care of the guys who are watching Naruto." Kakashi stated

Still stunned by the news I slowly nodded. Kakashi then told me to look for the guys and meet up with Naruto once I was done. Right when Kakashi left the tent, I draped my tan-colored cloak over my shoulders and my jacket hood over my head and left to do my job.

One by one, I took out all of the ANBU members who were ordered to keep watch on Naruto. There were only two members left, who were watching Naruto and Konohamaru's sexy jutsu match when Kakashi knocked them out with his sharingan eye. After Naruto's chat with Konohamaru, Kakashi sent me a look as if he was telling me to go with Naruto. Judging by his look, I dashed after Naruto. Soon we met up with Yamato and Kakashi in an open field as we waited for our mission to begin.

Once Yamato gave us the signal, we started to follow the cloud village ninjas.

* * *

Time Skip

All of us had followed the cloud ninjas until we reached an open snowy area. Another group of three arrived at the area as well. I narrowed my eyes on the bulky man in the middle, confirming his appearance.

'Yep that's the Raikage.'

"We have returned from Konohagakure." The team's leader of the group we followed stated.

"How did it go?" The Raikage asked.

Before the team could reply, one of the members of Raikage's team interrupted.

"Samui. Someone followed you." He stated before raising his voice. "Come out Konoha dogs!"

'... At least he didn't use a swear to call us out...'

Either way, we revealed ourselves by appearing several feet behind the two groups. Two of the members from Samui's team immediately recognized him and yelled at him for coming, but Naruto merely ignored them.

"Did the Hokage send you, Hakate Kakashi?" The Raikage questioned.

"No. We have a favor to ask of you. Uzumaki Naruto of Konohagakure wishes to speak to you. Please listen to him." Kakashi replied.

"Don't you think that it's a little rude? You didn't ask ahead for audience, and we're on our way to a meeting..." The man who found us responded, slightly annoyed.

"I'm well aware of that."

"All right." Raikage slowly responded. "That kid there right? Spit it out."

Naruto stepped forward.

"I want you... To stop Uchiha Sasuke's execution!" He stated with confidence.

Murmurs of disbelief and annoyance came from the other cloud ninjas, while Raikage remained silent.

"I know it's a lot to ask but I have to try! Sasuke's my friend and I can't just sit back and watch him be killed!" Naruto shouted. "And I don't want Sasuke to be the cause of a war between Konoha and kumo! I don't want either of us to be caught up in revenge!"

"Lets go." Raikage muttered and started to walk away.

At that moment, Naruto collapsed to his knees and continued his plea.

"I'm begging you! I don't want anyone else getting killed for revenge! All Sasuke ever thought about was revenge! It consumed him and changed him! He was driven mad by revenge! He's not the same guy I knew anymore! I don't want that to happen to anyone else! I don't want people from Konoha and Kumo to be killing each other!" Naruto's voice lowered as it began to crack. "... So please..."

'Naruto...'

The Raikage turned back to face Naruto, before he responded.

"I will kill Sasuke! It's up to you to make sure it stops there."

"When you went after Hyuga's byakugan, Konoha didn't do anything to retaliate. Your actions could have provoked a war, but we swallowed our own bloody tears in order to prevent that." Yamato stated. "Don't forget that you exist because of our sacrifices."

"This young ninja before you may not be skilled at this, but he's begging you. For the sake of both Konoha and Kumo... Raikage. As one of the kages, what is your opinion of this?" Kakashi questioned.

Raikage gazed down at Naruto who was still on his knees, anger and annoyance marked on his face.

"A ninja should not be so quick to bow before another. Ninjas respect actions and strength! There should be no compromise between ninjas." Raikage sternly answered.

He continued on about how the weak will be crushed and only the strong survives. Also saying that Naruto begging for mercy for a criminal for the safety of his friends is not called "friendship." As he started to leave again he told Naruto that he will not go far if he continues to act like how he is now.

I gazed down at Naruto as he continued to weep.

_**'Oi Hikaru, you should tell Raikage about Gyuki and his host, Killer B.'**_

Nodding to Shugo Ryuu, I ran after the cloud ninjas and ignored Yamato's calls for my to come back. The cloud ninjas halted to Yamato's calls and waited for me to approach them.

"What do you guys want now?! We're not going to talk about Sasuke anymore!" a dark-skinned kunoichi with long red hair snapped.

"I'm sorry to bother you all, but I am not here to talk about Sasuke." I nonchalantly responded. "I'm here to talk about Killer B."

Raikage's eyes widened before anger and suspicion filled his eyes.

"Who are you and what do you know about B!" he questioned, but it sounded like he was demanding it.

Calmly, I took of the hood that draped over my eyes, revealing my expressionless face. Once seeing my face, Raikage's guards protectively stood in front of him.

"Kurokami Hikaru. What did you-" the guards muttered.

"Shut it!" Raikage scolded and sent me a look to continue.

"Killer B is still alive. The akatsuki failed to capture him." I stated

The red head's patience snapped to my statement and grabbed the collar of my coat, bring her angered face dangerously close to mine.

"Why should we believe you?! You're an akatsuki too!"

"Used to. I used to be an akatsuki member... And it is your choice to believe me or not." I calmly responded.

It seems that my answer put her over the edge since he raised her fist up in the air, about to hit my face. Before her fist could collide with my face, I swiftly caught it and gave it a quick squeeze, making her knuckles crack as well as sending her a warning. She snatched her hand back after I released it and took a few steps back.

"Either way... you have a meeting to get to. So, goodbye."

With that, I returned to the rest of my team. All of them were too bothered with their own thoughts to ask me about what I had told the cloud ninjas.

* * *

**Time Skip**

**In a Nearby Inn**

Sitting in my own room, my eyes were sealed shut as I allowed my mind to transport to the corpse that followed Danzo. The corpse had already reached the meeting, which allowed me to listen in to their conversation. As suspected, the conversation was mostly about Sasuke, Akatsuki, and jinkjurikis.

'...I guess Sasuke won't show up. Dang-'

'**Hikaru look out!' **Shugo Ryuu immediately cut off my thought process. But I wasn't worried about it. Instead, I was more interested in his warning. As fast as I could, I returned to my body and was about to jump away. However, only a few centimeters in the air, I felt something wrapping around my ankles which caused me to fall flat on my face.

"Ugh... Wha-" Before I knew it, I found thick steel cuffs strapped onto my wrists, ankles, and neck. All of the cuffs were attached together by chains.

"Seems like there is a weakness to your little jutsu." A voice stated.

Looking over to the direction of the voice, I saw a man with an orange mask standing a few feet away from me.

"Tobi..."


End file.
